Abdus Shaik, a second-year physics student at KCL, is leading a group of students in coming together to call for reduced tuition fees for home and international students and a fairer student loan system. Here, we talk to Abdus about why this campaign matters and what you can do to support it.

Why did you start this campaign?

We started this campaign after we received an email from King's last summer regarding how much our tuition fees for the 2021-22 academic year would be. It made me upset knowing that we had lost out on our University experience during the pandemic, but our tuition fees would remain the same or even increas for International students. I felt this was unacceptable, so I wanted to do something about it and I started an Instagram account to raise awareness of this problem. Through this I met other students who were feeling the same, and we've now got a team of students who are working together to demand better.

How will this campaign benefit students at KCL?

This campaign will give students a voice and help them realise that what's happening isn't right and that they should stand up. I hope that knowing that other students feel the same will give students the confidence to raise their voices and make a difference.

How can students support your campaign?

Firstly, we are hoping to become a KCLSU-backed Union Campaign, so we need you to sign the petition to show that students want KCLSU to support this work.

You can also sign up to our mailing list on that page to get more involved: join our committee, get involved in our group chats and start going out and speaking to students about this issue. Everything starts with an idea and our idea is to make education a basic human right and not something that only the privileged should have.