University of Sheffield protest: Masked students occupy university building in protest over alleged arms company links

12 comments

  1. >They say they are unhappy with links with Rolls Royce, which manufactures engines used in military jets, and BAE Systems adding they have no plans to leave and will stay as long as is necessary.

    So until Homes Under the Hammer comes on tomorrow?

    They won’t stay as long as necessary or anywhere close to it. They will leave and the links with Rolls Royce will continue. I mean for fucks sake, there are far better targets than Rolls Royce for this kind of student politics.

    By attending the University themselves they are also supporting it and lending it legitimacy. The hypocrisy is through the roof.

    Just wait until they need their degrees in painting by numbers signed in 3 years, and they will be very happy to have the university signature at the bottom of their certificates.

  2. Is it legal yet to protest protesters, by super-glueing protesters together and laughing at them ?

  4. These students might need to realise that the research links between Sheffield Uni and companies like Rolls Royce, Boeing and BAE systems help make Sheffield attractive to engineering companies.

    These research links are usually between the researchers and the companies rather than between the University and the company. The researchers obtain funding from these companies and bring the funding with them to whatever University they have a position in. Let’s say the University decides to cut links to these companies; these research groups will simply move to another university or another research facility. The engineering department will lose talent, and Sheffield will lose expertise. Many researchers in the Mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, materials, and control systems departments will be affected. Not to mention that the education that the students will be affected as well.

    Unfortunately, in the field of engineering, particularly aerospace engineering, many military applications could be derived from civilian research. There was an innocent student competition a few years ago on designing a drone that could deliver first aid to remote locations and deliver a payload as accurately as possible whilst maintaining some high altitude. I’ll let you think about the potential military applications that drone may also have.

    Source: Did my Aerospace MEng here and doing a PhD at the Uni as well.

  5. I don’t care about their methods, I disagree with their aims. Ukraine is able to resist Russian occupation and actually win their war thanks to western arms manufacturers.

  6. was made aware of this earlier. majority of the people that use the building they’ve blocked off aren’t doing any courses associated remotely with what their protesting.

    i really don’t see how they think stopping future architects or future
    engineers going to lectures or even just general students wanting to visit a cafe will prevent arms deals.

  8. Imagine protesting arms companies in 2022, with Russia in Ukraine, increased Chinese aggression, a globally weakened America, the fight over the Arctic, and pending resource conflicts.

    Get a grip guys, you’re basically pearl clutching

  9. Rolls Royce is conducting research into mini Nuclear reactors, and are at the forefront of electric flying vehicle tech, yet involvement in weapons research is worth severing ties to an industry leader? I can’t imagine the Univeristy will take these strikes seriously, nor should they.

  10. This happened every year when I was at Sheffield. They get bored after a while and most students ignore them

  11. The Boeing Sheffield links are around advanced manufacturing technologies on commercial aircraft linked into making more efficient aircraft that use less fuel for sustainability purposes.

    RR are trying to perfect small modular reactors to help remove the need for fossil fuels (also helping with lunar programmes).

    BAE is a bit different but still if you look at what programmes they are funding in university of Sheffield it’s nothing military related.

  12. I work in Defence and we subcontract to universities sometimes. Not everything is bombs and guns, intelligence, cyber, and comms are huge. As we are seeing in Ukraine the ability to share info, block enemy comms, and intercept chatter is hugely important.

    Can some of this be used offensively? Yeah probably, drones are a big thing at the moment. Ultimately it’s up to the indivudal but deliberately wanting to hamstring defence research is utterly bonkers to me. We want the best and brightest coming out if universities to make a difference. Imo the future is bleak, best be prepared.

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