‘Why am I paying for somewhere I’m not actually staying in?’
DESTINY Karakus, 21, studies politics and international relations and is the democracy and campaigns elected officer at the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union.
Since the lockdown, her living situation has been complicated alongside her studies, she said: ‘I’m in London at the moment and can’t travel back to my accommodation.
‘I’m still paying rent, It makes me feel very angry because why am I paying for somewhere I’m not actually staying in, somewhere I’m not able to travel to?
‘I’m doing a placement year so I’m still doing assignments but it’s not as much as a full-time student would have, I still feel I could’ve done better if I had access to the library and all the facilities the university offers, that is what I’m paying tuition fees for.
As an officer in the student union, she has worked on campaigns to address the concerns of Portsmouth students since lockdown.
She added: ‘We’ve started our campaign, it’s called Value for Money, and it calls for a reduction in tuition fees, rent relief and contracts.
‘We are continuing to make sure that the university is upholding the no-detriment practices so that the learning and grades of students aren’t negatively impacted by the pandemic.
‘A lot of students have contacted us, they’re complaining about the fact they’re not even allowed to travel to university. As the union we feel we need to represent students as best we can.
‘Students are extremely agitated, they feel like they’re being neglected and not understood. We feel like our voices aren’t being represented on parliamentary grounds like we’re being pushed to the side.
‘Students have been scapegoated and blamed for Covid-19 because we travelled from different cities to university, that pressure that has been put on students is extremely unfair.
‘It really has impacted our mental health because we have so many deadlines and we’re already stressed from the academic efforts that we need to put in and on top of that to be locked in a house, not being able to socialise, it gets extremely draining.
Destiny has advocated another campaign called #ForgottenStudents which allows southern student unions to come together as a ‘collective’ and a ‘figurehead’.
The campaign fights for private rent refund policy, tuition fee reduction, no detriment policy, an end to digital poverty and securing of the graduate job market.
She added: ‘Students are really engaging, they feel like this is what they needed and they can see that we’re fighting for what they want us to fight for.’