BIRMINGHAM students marched into university premises yesterday and occupied a building in solidarity with two protesters victimised by management. 

Student activists took over Birmingham University’s Strathcona Building in the early hours of Monday in defence of Simon Furse and Kelly Rogers’s suspensions for anti-privatisation protests. 

Mr Furse and Ms Rogers were banned from study or political activity on campus last week for nine months by a university disciplinary panel for taking part in a week-long occupation in November against bosses’ privatisation plans. 

Students involved in the latest occupation would not give their names for fear of being slapped with similar suspensions or legal actions. 

But one told the Star that they were standing up for peers “being persecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.”

They said the occupation was essential to stop management bullying tactics “before this becomes the norm, not just in Birmingham, but nationwide.”

When the activists seized the building, which they described as “surprisingly simple,” the group published a list of five demands topped by the reinstatement of Mr Furse and Ms Rogers. 

A few hours after the start of the sit-in, management reportedly chucked a letter through the building’s door informing occupiers they were in breach of a court order that placed an injunction on protest activities on campus.

Students denied the implication, saying they were “entirely justified in staying.”

According to the group and their legal advisers, the injunctions were only applicable to those against whom they were taken. 

“We are entirely justified in staying in,” said an occupier.

Amnesty International's UK campaigns director Tim Hancock said: “It would be worrying if universities were attempting to curb the rights of their own students to make their views known with a blanket ban on protesting on campus without prior permission. Limitations to protest should be proportionate.”

The Star contacted Birmingham University for comment but did not receive a reply. 

As part of the protesters’ list there is also a demand for the university to recognise occupations as a legitimate form of protest.

University of London Union president Michael Chessum said it was “inspiring and significant” that the students had managed to pull off the occupation.

He said: “We are witnessing an attempt by a clique of high-paid university managers to transform universities from communities into businesses and Birmingham is at the cutting edge of this.”

The way in which the university has handled the case “doesn’t work,” added Mr Chessum.

“It’s backfiring even in summer and it will backfire more and more in the term to come.”

The sentiment was echoed by the occupying protesters who told the Star: “Universities have historically been radical places where learning and dissent went hand in hand.

“Our higher education system is so far removed from this that universities have become nothing more than paper-pushing, draconian institutions that care nothing for the welfare of their students.”