Dear all,
Please find below a letter that we are collecting signatures for in relation to the report in the Independent about the Universities of Sunderland and Ulster singling out international students to register their attendance through a fingerprinting system. See report here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/is-this-really-necessary-universities-introduce-fingerprinting-for-international-students-8894007.html
If you would like to add your name to the letter, which we will send to the Independent, please email [log in to unmask] with your name and institutional affiliation, by 1pm Tuesday, 22nd October.
Best wishes,
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We write as academics concerned with the way in which the rhetoric over security is undermining the university as a place of learning and open discussion. The latest move by the universities of Sunderland and Ulster, singling out international students to give fingerprints to prove their attendance at lectures, is reprehensible and to be condemned in the strongest terms. As academics, we have a duty of care towards all our students and such policies undermine that relationship. We call on the universities of Sunderland and Ulster to withdraw the use of this system and for all other universities to take seriously their commitment to equitable treatment of all their students. We also call on the government to stop putting pressure on universities to enact such immigration policies. This damages the international reputation of UK higher education at all institutions and not just at Sunderland and Ulster. We are educators not border guards.
Gurminder K Bhambra, University of Warwick
John Holmwood, University of Nottingham
Chris Rossdale, University of Warwick
Anupama Ranawana, University of Aberdeen
Robbie Shilliam, Queen Mary University of London
Hannah Jones, University of Warwick
Cecily Jones, Independent Academic
Adam Barker, Independent Academic
Kirsten Forkert, Birmingham City University
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