University of Wolverhampton Students’ Union is backing protests set to take place at an open day for prospective undergraduates later this month.
The independent organisation representing students from across its three campuses is working with students to call for a U-turn on the University decision to end all free bus services taking students and staff to and from Wolverhampton, Walsall and Telford.
It is asking the university to reverse its decision and to work with the SU to support students, especially when they are already affected by an on-going cost of living crisis.
SU President, Adeyemi Adebayo, said: ““Along with students affected, as an independent, representative body for students the SU strongly objects to this decision as the free bus service is an essential and safe service helping students to travel safely between campuses and we are concerned about the impact on our students.
“This ranges from an increased financial burden as public transport is very expensive and this is something they had not budgeted for when starting their student journey at Wolverhampton, to impact on their mental health and well-being, as increased travel time means reduced time for study and working. Many of our students are also working and raising families.
The President continued:
“The SU are asking the university to reverse its decision, to work with us to support our students especially in a cost of living crisis.”
“We have met with the students planning protests on Saturday, August 17 and we are exploring how we can support the demonstration. We encourage students to come forward so we can help the university to understand the impact better.
“Our Sabbatical Officers spoke up about this across our media channels, including email, website releases and social media, on Friday, July 12 and since then students have been contacting us to let us know that this decision has a very wide reaching and potential negative impact on their lives. The survey the SU has facilitated for students to provide feedback has proved immensely popular and provided us with a greater understanding of what our students think of the decision.”