Friday, December 10, 2010

Student protests: the good and the bad

It has been good to see students protesting the proposed rise in tuition fees. It's about time. Back in the good old days, when there were no fees and we even had grants, students would protest at the drop of a beer can; today's generation are too busy working to survive their education years without too huge a burden of debt.

It has been bad to see a minority of protesters (whether they were students or not) rioting, causing damage and injury. It meant that the BBC News at Ten led on the story of the attack on the car of the Prince of Wales and the question of royal security rather than the scandalous vote to allow universities to raise fees.

But David Cameron surely signed Vince Cable's fate when he patted him on the back when he sat down in the House of Commons after speaking in favour of the motion. 'Good man. You're one of us.'

5 comments:

nick said...

Indeed, the violence was disturbing, but unfortunately it seems the only way to get maximum media attention. Routine peaceful protests are often totally ignored. The journos still give yards of column inches to the case for a huge rise in tuition fees but no space at all to the case for free education. What shoddy journalism we have in this country.

jams o donnell said...

While I deplore the violence of the minority I am generally pleased to see that students have some fire in their belly

Furtheron said...

I've just posted on this issue myself.

The protests are good, the violence not, what is happening to the younger generation is a timebomb I believe of monumental proportions

Steve Hayes said...

Back in my student days we protested against things like that! And also against more serious stuff, like university apartheid.

Gledwood said...

That's why I wanted to study Chinese in Germany. Not only would I improve my German while learning Chinese, but tuition fees are a fraction of what they are NOW, let alone what they're supposedly going to be...

... I also looked into Chinese in China, and there are quite a few BA courses, but without exception they have age limits of 30-40 years depending on the course. Which is ridiculous, but try explaining that to a Chinese person. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that some of those courses are just there to make money for institutions about whose academic standards I know absolutely nothing about