Tent State University UK

Tent State University UK (or Tent State) is an initiative of an autonomous group of staff and students at the University of Sussex, inspired by the national Tent State University movement in the United States. The first UK Tent State will take place at Sussex from Monday 28th May - Saturday 2nd June 2007 WEDNESDAY 20TH - FRIDAY 22ND JUNE.

The main slogan of Tent State is Education Not War. The Government spends billions of pounds on war, and yet claims there is no money for Higher Education. Tuition fees go up and up and universities are forced to compete to provide the most profitable degrees. As a result, access to education increasingly becomes the preserve of the privileged few, and market pressures compromise quality of education. Universities become self-serving corporations, which reinforce the gap between rich and poor.

Tent State is our vision of an alternative university, where education is not a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, but a right. At Tent State, education is truly free and open to all, regardless of class, race, religion or gender. Teaching and learning is controlled by those who choose to take part in it, not by an unrepresentative and unaccountable elite. By reclaiming part of our campus we are expressing our dissatisfaction with the status quo, while demonstrating an alternative.

Divisions between and within students, staff, and the wider world can only harm us. We stand for co-operation, not competition; in solidarity with people’s struggles around the world. British troops should be withdrawn from Iraq immediately so that the Iraqi people can unite to decide their own future, instead of being divided and ruled by an occupying force, which serves only the interests of its commanders in Whitehall and Washington. The Trident nuclear weapons system should not be replaced, but instead we should work towards nuclear disarmament, to make the world a safer place for everybody. The billions of pounds saved by ending these injustices carried out in our name should be spent on education.

Our regular meetings are open to anyone willing to work towards this mission. Decisions are made by consensus. We encourage staff and students elsewhere to organise Tent States at their own universities, with a view to establishing a national network of Tent State Universities.