About twenty-one protesting students of the University of Sydney had been handed a fine of $21000 for an act the New South Wale (NSW) police said contradict Covid-19 restriction which do not allow any outdoor gatherings which comprise more than 20 people.
About two hundred (200) students of the University had staged a demonstration to protest the hike in school fee and job cut.
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During the protest, it was gathered that some students were seen moving around the school premises in smaller group, some were seen sitting down on the city road not obstructing free movement of vehicles while some among these set of students carried placard that read what they were protesting against.
The protest took to another dimension when the NSW riot police started chasing to arrest some of the protesting students on the ground that their gathering is more than 20 people allowed under the public health rules which the school management vehemently opposed, saying a strong police response to student protests depriving them free speech on campus.
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The arrest of the students totaling twenty-one in number subsequently lead to them being handed a fine of $1000 each.
The school said that they will always support freedom of speech and the right of their students and staff to freely express their opinions in a legal, respected and save manner.
It was reported that about one-hundred staff and students of the University of Sydney have signed an open letter to express their concern over the presence of the large number of.police officers on the campus that lead to the arrest and subsequent fine of some of the students.
Few weeks ago, the Minister of Education, Dan Tehan announced a proposed fee hike that will see the cost of studying some degree programmes double while some would reduce. This is said to be intentionally designed to encourage student do degree programmes that the government believe would be more beneficial to economy growth.
The job cut is as a result of hardship the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the education sector in Australia especially NSW. It was reported that majority of the university students in Australia are international students which accounted for 18% of total revenue of the sector in 2017. Now Covid-19 pandemic is preventing them from migrating to Australia.
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