A Protest For Life

Why the South African student protests are the perfect spark for students around the world.

In the last week, the world has witnessed South African university students stand together to say that they will not accept the proposed fee increases. For those in the UK, these protests hark back to British students own days of protests when, in 2010, they also stood together to fight the fee rise. They were, however, unsuccessful. But maybe with South Africa’s stand taking the world by storm, it’s the perfect opportunity to do the same elsewhere.

The question over whether tertiary education should be a right or a privilege is one that has been asked frequently as universities the world over impose higher fees. Students in Britain, Chile, Hong Kong, Quebec and others have taken to the streets to demand subsidized, cheaper and even free tertiary education. And now South Africa has joined them.

Just as they did in London 2010, things have turned violent. Police clashing with student protesters, tear gas and rubber bullets fired and journalists flocking to hear the stories. And yet, the situation seems more positive in South Africa than it ever did in the UK.  Pressure is mounting on the South African government, from within and without, to propose a solution that would help to subsidize fees.

I spent 3 years at the University of Manchester and witnessed calls for students to rally against fees and proposed hikes. But the response was limited: compared to South Africa, it was like a village protest against a proposed change to the church roof. Certainly in 2010, things were much grander as over 30 000 students marched through London’s streets, but London was the focal point, whereas in South Africa, the protests are spread through various cities, and are having a much larger impact.

Perhaps it is because things are so much more desperate for South African students, for whom the cycle of poverty is more familiar than it is for those students in Britain, who have the comfort of benefits to cushion their fall. In a country where over 12 million people live in extreme poverty and many more in some form of poverty, the proposed fee increases on 10% to 12% mean that many poorer black students will be excluded from tertiary education, a tool so important in pulling people out of poverty. Another factor lies in student loans which are not as widely accessible to students in South Africa as they are in the UK, where most British students are entitled to a loan. In South Africa, it is not so much a protest for lower fees as it is a protest for life.

So with more on the line, maybe South Africa is the perfect environment for students to stand up and say enough is enough. If the value of tertiary education is greater to poverty stricken students there, perhaps the impact can be much larger. But more importantly what can success in the South African protests mean for the rest of the world?

Maybe this is just the perfect spark students worldwide need, to make them to go back to their governments with an answer to that heavily debated question: that answer being that tertiary education is not a privilege but a right.