We all know the University is in crisis, and the recent chaos around A-levels only adds to the sense of decline, disappointment and disaster. Amidst all this chaos FUB has been slowly, carefully building up an alternative, learning how to create a sustainable University outside of the market system. We think it’s time that we began to spread this message. We’ve already been part of initiating a Free University London and our experience makes us believe that it’s possible to Free The University everywhere, providing a real alternative right now, right here.
So if you’re despairing in the face of the collapse of University education, if you want to begin to organise alternatives, FUB is inviting you into our community to discuss and organise the future University.
We have created a space in our online platform specifically for those who want to get involved in transforming the University. This is a private space where we can organise, plan and discuss how we create the future University now. If you want an invite please contact us. Share this with friends, co-conspirators and radical educators. This is a space for action.
Who are we?
Free University Brighton has been working since 2012 to provide an alternative and for the last five years we’ve been running ‘freegrees’. These are University level courses, open to all regardless of qualification. Our courses range from 4 week long introductory courses aimed at First Years (people who have never been to University before) to 12-week long Humanities, Social Sciences and Philosophy courses that rival anything in a ‘traditional’ University. We do this all with no money exchanged anywhere – no fees, no debt.
Students and Tutors at FUB have developed a vibrant learning community. Our courses are open access in more ways than just money. We enable people to attend at their own pace – so students range from those who are studying almost full-time, much like they would in a traditional University, to those who attend one or two courses a year, to those who just want to sit in and be part of an intellectually rigorous discussion that they cannot find anywhere else. This produces a completely different kind of educational space, one that is real, vibrant and life affirming. Our classes aren’t robotic reproductions of tired ideas, simplified concepts and marketised education, where the only real goal is to get a piece of paper that supposedly proves we’re clever enough to be paid a decent wage. Education in the traditional University takes place in spite of, not because of, what’s provided. At FUB we learn for the love of it.
And we’ve been successful at continuing to do this year after year. This is crucial, because it takes time to study, and FUB provides an ongoing space that can provide an anchor for people who want to learn and develop. We believe our experience, practice and success has given us a unique insight into how to free the University. We invite you to join us in the next step in that journey.