Student Protestors Occupy
Oxford’s Bodleian Library
More than 100 Oxford University students occupied the Bodleian Library February 7 to protest the suspension of seven students’ residency status at Oxford for nonpayment of tuition fees. Oxford can prevent nonresident students from receiving their final degrees.
Kirsty McNeill, president of the student union, told the online BBC news service February 7 that the library occupation would continue until the university rescinded the suspensions of the seven students, who were among the protestors.
“The university is working to ensure that disruption to staff and other students is kept to a minimum,” an unidentified Oxford University spokesperson said.
Disgruntled students have been making their displeasure known across the country since 1998, when the government mandated that low-income students qualified to attend prestigious private universities pay up to £1,050 a year for their higher education. In an apparently unrelated action, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced February 8 that he backed increasing the number of subsidized slots at institutions such as Oxford.
Posted Fenruary 12, 2001.
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