Glasgow students stand with UCU strikers

During a nationally-coordinated student strike, Glasgow University students picketed with striking staff in a show of resolute solidarity, reports Sophie Johnson

On Wednesday morning, as part of a national student walkout led by the NUS, students showed their resolute solidarity with striking staff members on the final day of their strike action. Around the country, students walked out from classes and rallied against the marketisation of education, which includes the conditions staff at universities are striking against.

At 9.30 am, more than 20 University of Glasgow students left the busy main picket to form a hard picket outside the entrances to one of the university’s engineering buildings. Students successfully prevented students and non-striking staff from entering the building and disrupted 3 hours of teaching. The student picketers remained steadfast despite campus security attempts to compromise the picket and on one occasion, bravely held firm in the face of an aggressive academic manager who attempted to break the line by force.

Around 11 am, striking UCU staff marched towards the engineering building in order to cheer on the student picket. The street was filled with chants of “Students and Staff, Unite and Fight!”

This student action followed a similar hard picket on Tuesday outside the University’s Adam Smith Building and was emblematic of widespread student solidarity and outrage at university management’s continued contempt for the welfare of teaching staff.