Hi lovely people, Im a sleeper member,some one who doesnt come to meetings but nods furiously in agreement at the computer when stuff is posted on the group! What Im posting today is about something my friend at Birmingham Uni let me know about, it is campaign they are running there and they were wondering if we here at southampton could do anything to help. I thought it might be of some sort of interest to femsoc. Basically this is what I received from my friend. Its super long message and the situation is awful, is there anything we can do?: Im no sure if youve heard of the #Justice4Sanaz campaign? I Will explain it regardless, its something were going to do some work for through Defend Education and with Bema as well as trying to pass a motion through the Guild of Students and hopefully if you think this is worth pursuing you can maybe do some stuff. Basically, Sanaz Raji was doing her phd at Leeds uni when they cut her funding two weeks before she was due to start her third year and she would have had to fund £24,000 herself which as a pg student she didnt have. Then as shes a non-eu international student there have been immigration issues with the home office wanting to deport her. Here are some articles with more detailed info: ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/neoliberalism-higher-education-sanaz-rajis-struggle-justice/ newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/neoliberalism_and_solidarity_in_universities_the_case_of_sanaz_raji timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/former-leeds-student-loses-appeal-against-removal-of-phd-scholarship/2012217.article Although this is about Sanaz personally because the UK legal system works on case law this could have massive positive repercussions for non-eu international post graduate students. Currently there is no legal aid for immigration cases,nor much support in order to able to fight the university on this issue: with all the immigration stuff and intimidation international students receive they often find it hard to tackle unfair university management decisions. Also the treatment of post-grad students especially international ones can be abhorrent. Sanaz talks about her supervisor not caring, having to teach classes and getting paid next to nothing. In terms of the free education movement pg students are often a group that get forgotten and this a really great opportunity to help. So what were hopefully going to do as Defend Education - support the campaign on social media #Justice4Sanaz - Two of our people are going to write a blog post - We are hopefully going to reach out to some contacts at the Guardian - Contact people who can support the campaign in other unis (ie you at Soton) - Possibly going to Leeds to protest - Mandate our NCAFC reps to get them to put a motion forwards. They just published this on their blog so I think it would pass anticuts/2014/10/24/free-education-and-phd-students/ - work with Bema (Black and ethnic minority association) and other liberation associations to help As J4S were also going to approach, as I said earlier, our Guild of Students to put forwards two motions: one for commitments and another to mandate them into action (if you are interested in doing the same I will send you the motions when we have completed it). The commitments motion will be broader; about supporting international students and is long term. The mandate motion will be about actions to help Sanaz specifically (although by extension that will aid the wider international/post-graduate/anti-institutional racism struggle). It would be really great if we could campaign across universities for this one and if you could help on your end, even just to bring to some peoples attention would be much appreciated. Also if you can find out (maybe by talking to your post grad officer or some post grad students) how theyre doing and if theyre being treated well. The broader we can make this the better. I have a feeling Sanazs situation is just the tip of the iceberg.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 23:51:28 +0000
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