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The Movement that Defined a Generation: UCL Occupation 10 Years On
Written by Colin Lee
2 020 can be described by a number of usually
negative adjectives, yet it has also pulled out passions that students didn’t even know about. Remember the adrenaline rush while trying to occupy a university study space, motivated by actual desires to learn and shape the future? Surprisingly, the situation wasn’t too different 10 years ago. Students occupied university buildings in order to shape their future themselves. Across the country, students were leading a new social movement. Around a decade ago, UCL students, alongside a coalition of other student bodies around the UK, rallied against the government scheme to cut the state grant for universities and increase tuition fees. On 12 October 2010, the Browne Review, a newlypublished report on higher education in England, suggested removing the cap of £3,290 on tuition fees (yes, domestic and EU students only paid only
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Artwork by Flynn Klein
around £3,000. International students paid less too. Unbelievable.). The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government didn’t remove the cap, but increased it to £9,000.
Demo 2010 Student response was quick. The first major protest erupted on 10 November in London under the name “Fund Our Future: Stop Education Cuts” or “Demo 2010”. Organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU), about 50,000 students gathered from all corners of the UK to participate. On 24 November, around 150 UCL students occupied the Jeremy Bentham Room in protest. Six days later, a second group occupied the Slade School of Fine Art. The UCL sit-in, dubbed “UCL Occupation”, was one of the first of the many
