ANGRY students in Manchester have torn down security fences erected without warning around halls of residence on the orders of university authorities to keep them apart. 

The fences were erected on Thursday at the University of Manchester’s Fallowfield campus as a “security measure” to “help avoid the mixing of households.”

Student Hannah Phillips, who is active in the Manchester 9k4what? tuition-fees campaign, told the Morning Star: “Students woke up in the morning and saw this giant fence being erected, and there were no gaps. 

“For first-year students it was very scary and last night they felt trapped. 

“The fence just went up without it having been explained to them. There was no e-mail sent, and there’d been a lack of support for students in these halls.

“Even the campus staff at the helpdesk couldn't tell us what was going on.

“There was a lack of communication, and being on lockdown, being locked in, so that the university could profit from the rents and tuition fees.”

Ben McGowan, a first-year politics and sociology student, said: “I think there was a boiling point when they put up those fences. It was a final breaking point for most students.”

First-year maths student Joe Hindley said: “We’ve just been really frustrated. It feels like a kick in the balls.

“There’s no benefit we can see to them being up. They’ve said something about it increasing our safety, but from what we can see it’s a complete waste of money.”

The security fences separated residential blocks and surrounded the whole campus, with entry and exit through staffed security gates.

Mick Costello, a former Manchester student who went on to be senior industrial correspondent at the Morning Star and industrial organiser of the Communist Party, said: “As a one-time president of the Manchester Students Union, at a time when teaching was free to students, and grants covered accommodation, I express full solidarity with the action taken by students at Manchester University.”

University president and vice-chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell apologised for causing “concern and distress” by putting up the fences.

She said yesterday that they would be removed, but there would be increased security patrols.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said the move “exacerbated the stress” of staff and students.

She added: “We are glad that the university intends to remove the fence but are clear that it should never have been erected in the first place.”