University protests around the world: a fight against commercialisation: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Final extract from the article by  at the Guardian looking at how students around the world are fighting back against the commercialisation of University education.

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

What’s happening? Students are occupying Maagdenhuis, the university’s main administrative building, calling for a democrastisation of the institution.

What prompted the protest? Protesters want to increase the transparency and accountability of the university decision-making processes and to pause and reconsider its programme of restructuring, cuts and sell-offs.

Julie McBrien is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.

How do you protest bureaucracy? How do you work against the financialisation and managerialism that has seeped into the university, forcing us to prioritise ‘rendement’ (efficiency), harmonisation, and profit, rather than creativity, education, and critical thinking?

In Amsterdam we started by occupying symbolic university buildings , organising public rallies and taking to the streets en masse. We wrote articles, appeared on television and the radio and published open letters.

But resistance takes many forms. As a mode of critique and change we have taken back our workspace. We have marked the very corporate-like environment we work in – all straight lines, uniform spaces, impenetrable concrete, unbending steel – with signs of alternative voices, thoughts-in-the-making and issues up for debate.

We have joined with our students on a weekly basis to think through the effects of managerialism and financialisation and how, when there is no other way, we can disobey in everyday acts of resistance.

In resonance with Bertold Brecht’s famous phrase ‘Stell dir vor, es ist Krieg, und keiner geht hin’ (just imagine, there is a war and nobody joins), we imagine what comes of bureaucracy when nobody fills out the forms. When we refuse to cooperate with the system that has hijacked our university, we make a step towards reclaiming and recreating the university. It’s not visible to most, but these forms of protest play a part in recreating the university as a space for learning and discovery.

Continue to Read the Full Article – http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/mar/25/university-protests-around-the-world-a-fight-against-commercialisation

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.