Swansea students have come under attack from their vice chancellor and university management and have taken mass action to defend courses, services and accommodation.

Matthew Dobson, Swansea Socialist Students

In November of 2005 the university management announced plans to sell off Hendrefoelan Student Village, accommodation which houses 1,700 students for a substantial profit to private housing developers. No plans for alternative accommodation were confirmed. The loss of the Village would mean an acute housing shortage for incoming students, rents in areas of private housing used by students would rocket sky high. Immediately Socialist Students organised a campaign to Save the Student Village, we collected hundreds of signatures on petitions and held campus meetings.

Socialist Students passed a motion through the student union calling for a campus demonstration and solidarity action to be taken by all the trade unions on campus. An all campus trade union meeting at the beginning of December decided to co-ordinate action against cuts and closures and attacks against staff members. The campaign continued into the New Year, but anger on campus exploded when management plans to close the Natural Science Library were leaked. The NSL is seen as a quiet study area and an alternative to the General Library which is always overcrowded. Added to this there is huge concern about how students would be able to obtain books if this library was closed.

The students union called a campus demonstration on 20th of February. On the day of the demonstration a march of 300 students passed through campus and stopped outside the Abbey administration building a rally took place with speakers from the NUS national leadership. Their loud chanting, singing and media interest forced a representative of management to leave the building and talk to the students. Students became incensed when the bureaucrat explained that he had no idea about the university’s plans and that the vice chancellor had left the university that morning. The demonstration then spontaneously poured into the building overwhelming campus security. Students sat in the hallways and staircases of the building and continued chanting for half an hour. The university management refused any form of dialogue and called the police who surrounded the front entrance of the building.

The police through campus security who were inside the building threatened to "peacefully remove" students from the Abbey. Eventually a small concession was granted as university management agreed to meet student representatives on Wednesday 22nd of February. A number of students were understandably intimidated by the police presence outside and calls for a longer occupation were not confidently put forward by the Sabbatical officers.

Students marched proudly out of the building and walked across campus to a mass meeting held in the union building.

At the meeting it was decided that a union meeting would be held on Tuesday to prepare for a demonstration on the day of the meeting of university management and student representatives. Socialist Students played an active role in demonstration and occupation; our leaflet advertised a meeting on "The Battle For Free Education, fight against cuts and closures" and the Fight for Your Future ISR/Socialist Students Conference on March 4th.

We also explained the need to focus anger and energy in these campaigns not just against the Vice Chancellor and university management but the New Labour government’s plans for education as a whole. The cuts and closures and drive for profit at the expense of the welfare of students occurring in Swansea University is the legacy of the Rees Report commissioned by the government and the Welsh Assembly to solve the funding crisis in higher education.

It is students and working class families who are paying the price for the drive to make education a privilege for the rich in society. These attacks are some of many that the university management have instigated in the last 3 years as part of "Going for Growth" program, in the spring of 2004 it was announced that 5 departments would close including Chemistry, Anthropology, Development Studies, Philosophy and Sociology.

There followed a mass demonstration involving hundreds of students which was broken up by the violent overreaction of the police. Swansea Socialist Students will continue to fight all plans for cuts and closures on campus and any attacks on the welfare of students.