UK Universities Occupied

UNITED KINGDOM – Thousands of students are protesting today against fee hikes and cuts to education throughout the UK today. (Estimates at 130,000). These protests comes on the heel of a 50k strong march through London which ended in the smashing of the Tory party lobby, only two weeks ago. Although reports are still trickling in (see indymedia: UK, London, Bristol), perhaps the most notable events of the day include the multiple university occupations, police brutality, and the ongoing police tactic of “kettling“. As of this writing (around 9:30pm in London), reportedly thousands of people are still being kettled in London, including children. These demonstrators have been kettled now for over 8 hours in the winter cold. [Edit: it appears those kettled were released sometime around 10:30pm in London]

Abandoned police van in London.

Live news from the Guardian. A map of the actions here. See Anti-Cuts for some updates.

Approximately 24 universities have been occupied in the past few days, including:

• Cambridge University – Old Schools Commons occupied on the 25th – DefendEd.
• University of Sheffield – Sheffield Occupation. (Occupation ended Thursday, as security forced them out; they temporarily occupied the vice-chancellor’s office afterwords but were forced to leave when more police arrived. They’re preparing for the day of action next week.)
• Birmingham University – Twitter feed here. (Occupation ended during the evening of the 24th.)
• University of Warwick – Arts Center Lecture Theatre occupied – Warwick Against Cuts.
• University of Leeds – ~400 occupy Michael Sadler building; According to SocialistWorkerUK, ~700 occupying Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre – OccupiedLeeds.
• Leeds Metropolitan University
• Oxford – Radcliffe Camera occupied –  Occupied Oxford. (Occupation ended on Thursday evening as police battered down the doors and evicted demonstrators).
• University College London – Bodleian Library occupied – UCLoccupation.
• University of East London
• Newcastle University – 60 occupy Fine Arts Building – Newcastle Uni occupation.
• Edinburgh University – Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 2 occupied – Edinburgh Uni Anti-Cuts.
• University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
• University of Dundee – Tower building occupied [source]
• London Southbank University – Language Centre occupied –  Save South Bank
• Roehampton University – Grove House occupied – Roe Uni Occupation.
• University of Essex – Lecture Block occupied
• Cardiff University – Shandon Lecture Theatre
• University of Bristol – Anson Rooms of Student Union Building occupied – [from indymedia].
• University of West England, Bristol – (Main building of Frenchay Campus, occupied as of 22.Nov) – [from indymedia] – UWE Camp for Ed.
• Manchester Metropolitan University – (50 students occupy Geoffrey Manton Building, Lecture Theatre 7. As of 22.Nov) – MMUoccupation.
• University of Manchester – Roscoe Building – RoscoeOccupation.
• Plymouth University – Roland Levinsky Building, Room 008 (occupied as of 23.Nov)
• School of Oriental and African Studies – Brunei Gallery (occupied as of 22.Nov) – SOASoccupation.
• Royal Holloway, University London – Sit-in of Picture Gallery Corridor of Founder’s building – RHACC.
• Also, Lib-Dem deputy leader, Simon Hughes had his office occupied by 30 students from the London School of Economics