The Higher Education Bill currently making its way through Parliament aggressively pursues:

· the deregulation of the university sector
· enshrines competition between institutions
· sanctions further student fee increases
· reduces the accountability of the institutions for those who work and study within them.

Goldsmiths staff and students associated with the Goldsmiths People's Tribunal and the Gold Paper, together with the College Trade Unions and Goldsmiths Students Union, oppose these destructive changes. We urgently seek to take back our university both as a civic necessity and a public good. We want Goldsmiths to be a place that both represents and fights for what we believe in: a site of critical enquiry, social justice, creative practice and innovative teaching.

We took the Gold Paper to Council, the supreme decision-making body of the University, and they asked us to pick out three priorities. So that is what we've done. We are now calling on you to support them.

Please SIGN THIS PETITION to demand the following:

1 Inquiry into College Mental Health Crisis: An urgent inquiry into the mental health crisis on campus; a commitment to increased funding for counselling and a re-structuring of services based on a consultation process with both staff and students.

2. Housing Justice: In line with the ongoing student rent strike, we demand that rent in Student Halls of Residence be cut to 50% of the average student maintenance loan and that the Halls of Residence are brought up to the minimum housing standard stipulated by the housing charity Shelter.

3. Democratisation of College Governance: At least 50% of Council should be elected by staff and students at Goldsmiths. Alongside this, the Warden's open meetings should be turned into a genuinely democratic forum to which all staff and students can bring motions and debates that, if passed, have to be acted on. Timetables should be organised so that all can attend and Assembly attendance should be reflected in AL and fractional contracts.