GUCU motion passed at GUCU Branch Meeting, 22-4-21
This branch notes:
- UK government regulations require that international students, as a condition of their student visas, meet the attendance and performance requirements of their courses
- There is a risk that international students who, as a result of the current GUCU assessment boycott, do not receive grades for examined assessments will be judged not to have met the conditions of their programme of study, and may therefore have their visas withdrawn
- Lecturers, course conveners, and universities as institutions all play a role in policing the regulations pertaining to international students
This branch believes:
- The Government’s policy of creating a “hostile environment” for migrants, including international students, is deeply wrong
- Maintaining student solidarity will be vitally important in winning the dispute over proposed redundancies at Goldsmiths
- This branch and its members have a duty to protect, where possible, the most vulnerable students, including international students
This branch resolves:
- To call upon the University to adjust its assessment policies – including through measures such as temporary suspension of regulations, postponement of exam boards, and issuing special dispensation to key groups of students – in order to prevent the withdrawal of international student visas
- In the event that the University does not submit to demands for the above, to request that members, while upholding the assessment boycott as far as possible, take whatever measures necessary to protect international students from having their visa status jeopardised