In an era marked by multiple intersecting crises – environmental, economic, and social – it has become increasingly clear that our existing systems are failing us.
It’s also clear that the higher education sector is perpetuating these systems of exploitation, extraction, and oppression.
This urgency is underscored by the recent protests against the systemic killing of innocent people in Gaza, which have spread to college campuses world wide.
With some noting that these protests may represent the largest student movement of the 21st century, highlighting the critical role universities must play in addressing and dismantling the systems of oppression they are based on.
The Another University is Possible campaign, launched by the University of Sheffield’s Students’ Union Sabbatical Officers in 2019 and relaunched in 2023, is a call for profound change – a call for the institutions within the higher education sector to reckon with their historical foundations and present operations and to embrace a future grounded in social justice, sustainability, and equity.
“Another University is Possible” is not just the asks from a single officer team at the University of Sheffield, but rather a manifestation of the demands from generations of the student movement who have proudly stood against colonialism and injustice – from protesting the Iraq war to opposing the introduction of tuition fees.
It is a collective reckoning with the histories of our institutions, and a plea from young people to imagine a different world.
As a first step, our campaign urges higher education institutions to acknowledge their complicity and understand the ways in which they uphold damaging systems, as acceptance is the first step towards change.
Acknowledging the history
This is not just an academic exercise but a moral imperative. Our institutions need to confront their involvement in colonial enterprises, whether through investments, teaching, or research outputs.
Additionally, there must be recognition that to decolonise a university without decarbonising or demilitarising it is a fruitless endeavour at best, and a wilfully empty promise at worst. All three of these systems of oppression are intrinsically linked and perpetuate each other – they need to be dismantled on a sector-wide level, requiring change and collaboration across all educational institutions.
Formal acknowledgment is the first step, which must lead to critical reflection on how systems of oppression persist in our investment plans, the names of our buildings, and our unchanging curricula.
Some educational institutions have engaged in this process, and doing so in good faith is what will allow us to collectively create meaningful and transformative change.
An example of how systems based in oppression influence the higher education sector is the need for universities to self-sustain through independent funding. This means that instead of following the pursuit of knowledge and social good the sector is forced to marketise and prioritise profit.
Seeking to partner with profitable sectors like arms manufacturing, oil, mining and gas, and securitising technologies.
It is not only a select group of students that want reform from their universities – research conducted with the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Students’ Union using a representative panel of 100 students has found that 58 per cent of students want the University of Sheffield to cut all ties with the arms industry.
The kind of change required to decouple the sector from these industries is large-scale and complex, however, the pursuit of equity, inclusion, and a better future is a worthy investment.
To reform the higher education sector, universities must establish democratic systems that prioritise student voices in decision-making processes.
Empowering students with meaningful influence, compensated through payment or academic credits, will enable universities to begin the engagement required to start actively dismantling the systems of oppression upon which they were built.
Students have a deep understanding of the function of the universities they are a part of and this empowerment will allow them along with university staff and trade unions to dismantle and reassemble systems of oppression through initiatives such as facilitating sustainable development initiatives, encouraging critical examination of curricula, and ensuring rigorous evaluation of research and corporate partnerships.
The research conducted at the University of Sheffield using a representative panel of 100 students also found that only 34 per cent have seen the university take steps to actively decolonise.
Power shifts
Many staff and students alike feel powerless in how their institutions currently run but still feel a responsibility to make a change, while the people with disproportionate power underestimate their opportunity to make it.
Some changes have to be sector wide, but all institutions have individual responsibilities. It is essential that no one gets left behind.
Additionally, change cannot continue to be left solely in the hands of the most marginalised and vulnerable, while leaders are unresponsive and say that like their hands are tied. And perhaps they are because of ongoing contracts, financial sustainability, or perceived reputational damage, but the answer to that feeling is not to run from conversations with the people who want this change but rather to co-create a path towards a more just future.
Protest is a cornerstone of democracy and essential for societal progress. The rise of student encampments in solidarity with Palestine, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the rise of student engagement with climate activism has clearly demonstrated that students want to be heard.
The student body has always been at the forefront of social movements with many of the current asks of the sector being part of historical movements that date back over 50 years.
Higher education institutions, the sector and the government all have a responsibility to protect and encourage protest, especially when responsibility around free speech and intellectual debate is such a live issue. Despite this, universities refuse to have open dialog with students and continue to impose stricter regulations on protest.
To say “Another University is Possible” is not an empty slogan, but an ask to change and progress the direction of travel of our institutions. Another university is possible not as a distant future, but rather as decisions that can be taken today.
Choosing to become a force for good, a catalyst for change, and a place where people can confront the past and envision a future worth striving for is a decision we can make now. We are educating the future, and we need to create change now.
