We are a national movement of thousands of student rent strikers across over 45 Universities withholding our rent until our demand for rent refunds, cuts and contract releases are met.

We are pleased to see our action has already compelled a number of universities to offer partial rebates for those not using accommodation. While this is welcome, it is nowhere near enough.

We have been treated appallingly this year, both by universities and the government. We were convinced to sign housing contracts and pay fees on false promises of normality only to face mass covid outbreaks, isolation in poor-quality accommodation and loss of work without adequate financial and mental health support. We have been ignored in all measures put in place to mitigate the disastrous impact of this pandemic. We have been fenced in and fobbed off by the institutions we trusted and failed by a government that wrongly assumed we would not fight back.

Enough is enough - we refuse to pay for this broken student housing system until it is run to meet our needs.

We understand the seriousness of this pandemic and support the move, long-called for by staff, to move most teaching online. We reject this broken, marketised version of higher education, in which our universities have come to treat students and staff as little more than numbers on a balance sheet - prioritising rental incomes over welfare and public health.

The pandemic has served to magnify deep-rooted problems in how our institutions are run. The Government must step in with funding now. We need free, publicly funded higher education that allows our universities to collaborate for the public good. We need an end to desperate competition which sacrifices student and staff welfare to generate revenue.

We urge students to join the national rent strike and we’re warning our universities and government that we will not stop until the demands of our strikes for rent refunds, cuts and contract releases are met.