By Klara Woxström
This academic year, the LSE Students’ Union (LSESU) is starting a campaign to reinstate the campus-based nursery, which was shut down on 20 March in 2020 in accordance with the government guidance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
LSESU General Secretary, Tilly Mason, along with the LSESU Women’s Officer, Tito Molokwu, have been “concretising the plans for campaigning.”
Mason states “the aims of the campaign are to:
- Have LSE commit to reopening the nursery by the end of the academic year, as per their agreement to review the closure in 2023.
- Ensure that students who are pregnant or have children are adequately supported in their studies.
- Set up more focus groups and communication channels with students with children – ensure that they are included and uplifted within the LSESU and beyond!”
Although closing the nursery was justified by the LSE in light of the pandemic, it has previously been on the verge of closing in 2010 and 2015. In both years, the nursery was under review due to being under-used and running at a loss. However, campaigners stated that the reason for its under-use was not so much its lack of necessity as the poor state of the nursery. In 2010, the nursery was relocated from a church hall to an LSE building’s basement located on Wild street.
In both years, the LSESU led campaigns to keep the nursery open, and in 2015, called for reinvestment into the nursery to encourage its use by parents. The decision to close down the nursery in 2020 was met with backlash and a campaign, #SaveOurNursery, was led by the students’ union. Mason commented on the 2020 nursery closure, “[From what I’ve heard from former users, the nursery was closed behind the backs of students and staff.”
Furthermore, the LSESU report on the on-campus nursery stated that no Equalities Impact Assessment was carried out before its closing. The report further highlights that only an on-campus nursery can provide “priority places for LSE staff and students, offer full-time care and curriculum-based learning for LSE Parents’ children”, as well as allow international students to access affordable childcare.
In replacement with the LSE nursery, the university established partnerships with three private local nurseries: Turtles Nursery, Kido International Nursery & Preschool London, and Smithfield House Children’s Nursery. The LSE currently offers a 10 percent discount for staff and a 25 percent subsidy for students.
Bethany Ellis, a third-year International Social and Public Policy student, commented on her experience at Turtle’s Nursery, “My experience was extremely awful. The nursery did not fulfil any of the promised policies in terms of a discount and [an] LSE representative. They also have no experience with university students using the ‘Childcare Grant’ … which lead to me being overcharged … refusing to reimburse me the overpayment.”
Ellis told The Beaver, “They also tried to make me pay before the childcare grant so they could get double payments and when I said I could not afford this they removed my son’s nursery place with no explanation… They are just a money-motivated business and have no care for the children and the families that attend.
[An on-campus nursery] will always make LSE stand out as a university that supports parents… Without this support, it will indefinitely deter parents from attending because they feel they are not going to be supported during their studies.”
Mason noted that “alongside having the provision of childcare on campus for students and staff, LSE respecting and uplifting students structurally marginalised by class and gender inequalities is also important. For an institution that promotes ‘understanding the causes of things’, LSE should be making education as accessible as possible to its female, often postgraduate student body, and ensuring everyone has adequate time and resources to properly take on their studies.”
The General Secretary is currently gathering testimonies from students and staff on the nursery’s importance, or how it would aid them in their studies. She further urges students to “please get in touch if this is relevant to you!”
Since publication, the LSESU Women’s Officer, Tito Molokwu, provided The Beaver with the following statement: “Women should have access to education regardless of their status as a mother. Their physical ability to have a child should not be a threat to their academic and occupational aspirations. The nursery will provide women with a physical symbol of this.
An institution cannot be inclusive without the voices of women being heard. The university has a commitment to all students to accommodate their circumstances in the best way possible for them to academically excel. By investing in the nursery the university will be able to ensure this for female students. Motherhood should not be in opposition to education and as a progressive, intersectional university LSE should include mothers in its goal of inclusivity.”
