friday 19th september 2014
spark volume 69, Issue 1
-The Top Stories From This MonthNEWS
RUSU STUDENT OFFICERS
Meet your new student officers and see what they have in store for this year
Reading students celebrate at Summer Ball Photos: Paul Underhill www.paulunderhill.com
LIFESTYLE
ENTERTAINMENT
Find out how to book hostels, negotiate foreign trains and much more
Liam Neeson brushes up on bad-ass criminal hunting skills in A Walk Among the Tombstones
YOUR GUIDE TO INTERRAILING
RELEASED TODAY
SPORT
UOR HOCKEY CLUB
Everything you need you know about the University’s Hockey team
WELCOME TO READING
Student campaign succeeds as planned DSA cuts are postponed ABBIE WEAVING News Editor
Due to ongoing campaigning from students and the NUS, the government’s plan to cut the Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) has been postponed for two years. This dramatic turnaround, which began in April, is thanks to a fierce resistance put up by students from across the country. Many argued that by cutting DSA, disabled students would not be able to fulfil their absolute
potential in higher education. NUS Disabled Students’ Officer, Maddy Kirkman, said: “Students up and down the country have been clear that the proposed reforms to the disabled students’ allowance represented a huge risk, and would have left many disabled students high and dry.” So influential was the campaign that hundreds of MPs were lobbied on the topic, with over 30 MPs attending a cross-party Early Day Motion in Westminster Hall. Kirkman added: “Through coming together to forcefully
make the case that these reforms would not work, together with a really broad coalition of MPs from all parties, students have ensured that this was a key issue for Greg Clark to address on taking up his new role as Universities Minister. It is to his credit that he has listened to these concerns and agreed to pause on the reforms for this year, and will consult and reflect before moving forward. “The Minister has heard the concerns articulated so powerfully by students and responded accordingly, and this is to be commended.”
In an attempt to justify itself, however, the government asserted that the cuts were being made to students who already own their own computer. In response to this, however, an NUS survey, ‘Degrees of Discrimination’, found that almost half of disabled students receive their laptops because of government funding. What’s more, 43% of nondisabled students surveyed got their laptops with their own money, compared to just a quarter of disabled students. Kirkman concluded that: “The
disabled students’ allowance is an incredibly important means of support for so many and we will, of course, continue to make this case and ensure that where there is reform it is to make the system work better for disabled students. “We do still hold some concerns around the £200 contribution and we will want more detail on how BIS intends that this is paid/collected, and what help can be provided in cases of particular hardship. For example, postgraduates who qualify for the DSA but don’t get any other statutory support.”