Students are a force to be reckoned with

by Petter Lundgren

We leave on a high note this term. To a large extent that is because of the Right to Ride campaign.

Not only have the aims we set out for the campaign been achieved, but the petition, set up on behalf of UAL’s students, is attracting interest in wide and important circles.

With your help, we hope the petition can grow much stronger still. So please spread the word.

The more it grows, the stronger our student body proves it can be. Such strength in numbers should not be underestimated.

A university student today often seems far from powerful. Students and graduates are under increasing financial pressure.

This is shown in our reports on unpaid internships and the many students who turn to, at times questionable work, in the sex industry.

Young people in general have it tough. Youth unemployment figures are breaking records and the economy is in bad shape.

Lost generation

Future prospects seem bleak and this summer’s riots suggested that, for various reasons, all is not well with Britain’s young. It is not for nothing they call us ‘the lost generation’.

Many seem to think it is easy to brush students and young people aside. As we have reported, a proposed law to criminalise squatting is passing through the chambers of government.

The details of it will split opinion, just as the concept of squatting does. But most of London’s squatters are young and many are students. And the government might attempt to use the proposal to also curb the right to occupy and, as a result, partly curb the right to protest.

Just as squatting divides opinion, so does the current poster-child of protest: the Occupy movement, and what it represents.

Ken Livingstone and others have talked to us about the focus of those protesters' anger. But for students and young people of our time, the right to protest remains paramount.

Not only is that right vital to any democracy, it is also a way for people with voices less loud to make themselves heard. It is a way to avoid being brushed off.

Leaving on a high note

‘Brushing off’ is a concept journalists, especially campaigning student ones at the Arts London News, are familiar with.

Although generally a frustrating topic, here it brings me back to that notion of leaving on a high note. A big part of this project has been to learn to cope with obstacles, and they have come thick and fast. As a team, we have overcome practically all of them.

For all the talk of struggling students, lost or angry youths, and unfairly treated interns, one thing is for sure: there are silver linings out there, found not only on fashion courses.

Being part of a final project that works as a realistic, demanding and rewarding work placement reveals some of the best sides of university studies.

Despite at times being guilty, indeed, of brushing off student reporters  – just read between the lines of some of our news stories – UAL has shown, to me, that they can go some way to justify those infamous fees. Though perhaps we should ask future editors who will be writing here while paying £9,000 per year.