The University of Leicester’s free student newspaper
www.the-ripple.co.uk ripple@le.ac.uk @uolripple www.facebook.com/therippleleicester
Issue Eight
Semester Two
5th February - 16th February
MEET PAUL-BO: UoL’s NEW VC
The University has appointed Professor Paul Boyle as the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. by Samuel Osborne
Professor Paul Boyle will take over from Professor Sir Rob Burgess, who will retire after 15 years of service to the University. Initially, Professor Boyle will serve as Vice-Chancellor Designate in September 2014, then take up the role of Vice-Chancellor from 1 October. He is currently Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council and President of Science Europe. Previously, he was Head of School of Geography and Geosciences at the University of St Andrews. An email to students explains that members of the University Committee were impressed by
Professor Boyle’s insights into strategic issues facing the University. The Committee said that it “is confident that he will prove a distinguished Vice-Chancellor and a worthy successor to Professor Sir Robert Burgess.” In the email to staff and students announcing his appointment, Professor Boyle said: “The University of Leicester has developed a strong reputation over the past 15 years, delivering world-class research and providing teaching of the highest quality. I have been hugely impressed with those staff and students I have met during my appointment process and I am looking forward to working together to build on the University’s suc-
cesses over the coming years.” In the same email, Professor Burgess said: “I am delighted that the University has appointed Paul Boyle as my successor. He is a distinguished social scientist who has much to offer the University locally, nationally and internationally. I wish him every success in developing the University of Leicester and its work.” In a post to the Leicester Union website, Union President Dan Flatt said: “I’m very excited with the appointment of Paul Boyle. He is an advocate for the student experience and the new Executive team will be able to continue developing the Students’ Union’s excellent working partnership with the University under his leadership.”
13 Arrested as student anger continues to sweep UK by Alistair Robinson
On Wednesday the 29th of January, over 300 students from universities around the UK and Northern Ireland, including Leicester, met at the University of Birmingham to discuss longterm aims and strategies for the resurgent student movement. Deciding to describe the aims with the title of ‘free, just and democratic education’, the three hour conference reached consensus on a number of pressing student issues, which included the continued sale of the student loan book, the refusal by some universities to reduce
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their wage-gaps and pay the Living Wage (resulting in the current industrial action) and recent attempts by universities and the police to punish and criminalise student protest.
After the meeting, organisers had arranged a rally to be held at the base of ‘Old Joe’, the iconic clocktower at the centre of the UoB, with a 50 foot banner reading ‘free education’ dropped from the summit. The rally was followed by a short march which Ripple sources suggest aimed to visit previous sites of occupations in an apparent effort to pay homage to
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the rich history student protests and highlight the important role of protest within democratic processes.
According to reports, it was at this point that large groups of private security staff hired especially for the by the University physically removed students from the building in confrontations which have given rise to claims from students of ‘excessive violence’ and from the university of ‘pushing’ from students. As students exited the university’s Great Hall, they were met by Police and ‘corralled’ according to West
Midlands Police and held for approximately two hours in a courtyard. The operation has been likened by a number of sources including The Independent to ‘kettling’, a controversial police tactic which denies the ‘occupants’ access to food, water and shelter for the duration.
13 students, including a University of Leicester, The Ripple source (who wishes to remain anonymous), were arrested upon exiting the ‘kettle’ after apparently being given the choice by police of giving details and going home or of refusing and
being arrested. Students were held in custody for around two hours in vans , strip-searched and then held for a further 27 hours in solitary cells before all but two were bailed without charge. There are question as to the legality of the police operation, with sources citing a case in the June in which the High Court ruled that releasing people from a kettle only when agreeing to hand over details, was illegal and protesters received compensation.
Banner reading “Free Education” unfurled on Old Joe, the University of Birmingham’s clock tower. Photograph by Lou Macnamara
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