Challenging Prevent at UCL

On Wednesday 30th September, Student Rights attended an event at University College London (UCL) entitled ‘Challenging Prevent: Defending our universities, communities and civil liberties’. The event formed part of the NUS’ launch of a Prevent helpline, whose purpose according to leaflets distributed at the event is to “support students and student union officers” and fight […]

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Anti-Muslim graffiti reported at University of Leicester

Following reports of an increased number of racist incidents across the UK in the wake of last week’s referendum result, students at the University of Leicester have reported disgraceful anti-Muslim graffiti. The Atheist, Humanist, and Secular (ASH) Society at the university posted a picture of a banner promoting an Eid festival which had been painted […]

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Students plan NUS disaffiliation over presidential vote (Update: Students at more universities raise

Update 22/04/2016: Individual members from student societies across the political spectrum at the University of York (UoY), including the “Labour Club, the York Tories, the UoY Lib Dems, York UKIP, York Greens, PalSoc, York Liberty and York Union”, have announced that they will be working together to write a motion demanding York University Student Union […]

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Student Rights at Exeter Debating Society

Last Friday, Student Rights National Organiser Gray Sergeant spoke at the University of Exeter Debating Society on the motion ‘This House Supports No Platform Policies at University’. Here he outlines his opinion on the topic. On being invited to attend this debate, I spoke for the motion despite my increasing frustration with overzealous student unions […]

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Student Voice: The student left’s broken moral compass

Following last week’s events at Goldsmiths College, Queen Mary student Tom Owolade has written on the failure of the Goldsmiths Feminist and LGBTQ Societies to stand with Maryam Namazie, and their expressions of solidarity with students responsible for the disruption. This article is cross-posted below, and all views are his own, and do not necessarily […]

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Student groups side with ISOC against Maryam Namazie (Update: ISOC President resigns)

UPDATE 09/12/2015: Since the pledges of support for Goldsmiths Islamic Society (ISOC) from the Feminist and LGBT Societies, statements made by Muhammed Patel, the President of Goldsmiths ISOC, have come to light in which he refers to homosexuality as “a disease” and uses the phrase “fag lovers”. Following this, a statement has been released by […]

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UEL Islamophobia event sees NUS officer share panel with extremists

Last Monday, the University of East London (UEL) hosted an event entitled ‘After Paris Horror…Don’t let the Racists Divide Us. No to Islamophobia. Defend Civil Liberties’. It is important that universities remain spaces in which students can both raise awareness of anti-Muslim hatred and freely discuss and criticise government policies. Unfortunately, the event was instead […]

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Student Rights welcomes Counter-Extremism Strategy

Earlier this week, the Home Secretary outlined a number of new measures to counter extremism which aim to “systematically confront and challenge extremist ideology”. Student Rights broadly welcomes the new Counter-Extremism Strategy, which identifies extremist activity on UK campuses as a serious problem which must be tackled without damaging freedom of expression. The strategy reaffirms […]

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