Friday 06-11-2020 - 14:05

We were really disheartened to see that at the height of the pandemic, our students have found themselves at the centre of another poor decision – erecting fencing around the Fallowfield halls on Thursday 5th November. We recognise everyone is in a difficult situation at the moment, but for this not to have been properly discussed with student representatives leaves us concerned about the value placed on the student voice on this and other matters. We have shown time and time again, we are ready to work closely with University leaders to improve decision making and put students at the centre. Our 40,000 students find themselves in the middle of an unprecedented crisis not of their making, and yet Government and the University seem committed to damaging trust with us all when we should be coming together. We should say up front, we would never support such action taken.

The wellbeing of our students is our primary concern, and Our Welfare and Community Officer has been extremely active in all meetings within the University and with stakeholders in Greater Manchester, discussing and planning support for our students’ wellbeing. In what has already been a very difficult start to the year for our students, the incident yesterday has shown a total disregard of wellbeing of our students. It is totally against our students’ human rights to be fenced especially without any prior information. Where is the “students as partners” rhetoric when students are not communicated to on the university’s decisions about actions that will affect their wellbeing? The university never consulted nor discussed this decision with us even though officers meet them daily to discuss different aspects of students’ experience and wellbeing. We initially fought and successfully overturned the University's decision on the University Senate to start fining students for Covid-19 breaches. It is very upsetting that the University and the government are trying to ignore how students’ current actions are fore-grounded by how they misled students to come to campus, totally disregarding our countless interventions and campaign for the first semester to be fully online. The University and the Government have put their finances first and students' health, safety and wellbeing last. The University may have issued an apology, however more should be done. The University must accept that it has failed in its decisions. The University has to commit to actively collaborate with its student community and reflect on the mismanagement of their campus reopening as well as the failure to learn from their mistake. The University has to commit to plan semester 2 for any type of scenarios - with actively weighting the worst circumstances that can unfold and be prepared for it.

At this point, we are not convinced that the University can provide the blended flexible learning which they promised students in Semester 2. We understand that the delivery the University can offer its students hinges largely on the state of Covid-19 in the UK. The current climate does not offer much hope and a second wave of the virus and lockdown further exacerbates the concerns of our students and there is a high probability that there will be little to no on campus activity in Semester 2. Pursuant to this, we demand that the University be transparent and honest with their decision on how the second semester will be. We do not want our students to be misled onto campus again knowing that their attempt to seek the student experience they were promised will be suppressed, trampled upon and denied. The university needs to put students first and be truthful and fair in its process and ensure that they don't make a decision about students without the students!

The university must think about reducing tuition fees to reflect this student experience our students have never had and have been punished for on countless times trying to seek it. Not only should the specific decisions makers of the fencing be held to account, but the Senior Leadership team has to truly reflect on the lack of governance and internal communications within its institution and address the lack of transparent decision making within its team. The fee reductions should not only be a matter for home students in parliament but it should be actively considered for international, PGTs and upfront payer students at The University of Manchester. Furthermore, additional compensation packages, particularly for students in halls need to be developed and delivered with the students' views at its heart.

We are aware our students’ protest last night was not only against being caged but other pressing issues like poor living conditions in their accommodation and the university’s lack of support. We have previously engaged some students from the rent strike group and we have communicated their demands to the University for further comments.