The University Rebellion

A wave of protests [1] against the neo liberalization of higher education has rocked the University of Amsterdam (UvA) since February. It’s a rebellion witnessed more and more not just in the Netherlands, but one stretching through universities on an international scale over recent years. From the Red Square movement in Québec, [2] to the student debt strike at Everest College, the UK student riots, the Californian campus occupations, [3] and protests in Australia, [4]students and staff alike are tired of the weak internal decision-making coming from management elite who are removed from the education system. The lack of democratic accountability and the emphasis on bureaucratic financial structures have seen the latest higher education rebellion at UvA. The university’s main administrative building is now occupied by students.

It’s a struggle characterized by the voices of higher education. Over recent decades a severe underfunding produced by quasi-private companies, coupled with a managerial elite who detach themselves from the fundamentals of university, have created a simmering pot. By streamlining decision making, emphasis on the true nature of high quality research for developing knowledge-transfer, has long been neglected. Instead, as UvA has witnessed, faculties are devolving in the name of the budget; becoming increasingly difficult to reach the crucial functions of higher education.Simultaneously, these highly paid managers push destructive workloads onto staff, and treat students as though they were mindless consumers. Talented researchers are inundated with a burden from the ‘paper-pushers’ to meet publication quotas, focusing on quantity over quality and missing the mark of scholarly work.

The protesters at UvA are fighting back on our behalf as much as theirs. They are demanding a democratization of the university processes. University staff have joined the student battle, tired of the management culture, heavy workloads, and bureaucracy – turning education and knowledge into a consumer good, for the best part, out of reach with its steep price. They are demanding a radical change in funding, teaching, organisation, research, and most importantly, a participatory self-governance in these methods.

The next few weeks will be interesting, and crucial. The UvA have taken a powerful stand in an attempt to reclaim the higher education system they have, in the name of knowledge. It’s a movement that slowly and surely has grown. One is cautiously hopeful that the movement takes flight. Vive le Rebellion.

[1] Rooieravotr. (2015, February 25). Student protests escalate in Amsterdam. Retrieved from https://libcom.org/blog/student-protests-escalating-amsterdam-25022015

[2] Michael, L. (2013, August 18). Quebec’s student tuition protest: Who really won the dispute? [CBC News Canada]. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebec-s-student-tuition-protest-who-really-won-the-dispute-1.1327562

[3] Bady, A., & Konczal, M. (2012). From Master Plan to No Plan: The Slow Death of Public Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/from-master-plan-to-no-plan-the-slow-death-of-public-higher-education

[4] (2014, May 22). Students protest against Government plans to pverhaul higher education sector. Retrieved from https://libcom.org/blog/student-protests-escalating-amsterdam-25022015