Medics stage protest over BUCS decision

The British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) acts as the national governing body for higher education sport in the UK. They have decided that a single educational institution should not be able to compete as two separate teams. This means that the current system where Imperial College (IC) and Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) are separate teams will not be able to continue.

This rule is being applied to the five institutions that compete with two separate teams in the BUCS league. The institutions affected are Barts and The London; Imperial; Guys, King’s and St Thomas’; Royal Free, University College and Middlesex; Cardiff. In the aim to enhance student experience in performance, competition and participation, BUCS have released two options.

The first option is that the affected medical schools can continue as individual members so that ICSM and IC are considered as separate institutions. Students would only be allowed to compete for IC or ICSM. This option allows the medical schools identity to remain and people can still play sport for their medical school. But this would restrict student’s ability to participate in both an ICSM sport and a different sport that IC offers but ICSM does not e.g. IC Fencing.

The second option is to consider ICSM and IC as one institution whereby an analysis of the performance in the BUCS league would determine which team takes on the title of Imperial first, seconds, thirds etc. based on their rankings. This would mean that the ICSM football firsts team could become Imperial Football seconds (Medics). The teams would still essentially remain separate but the ICSM team would be playing under the ‘IC Banner’.

The BUCS situation is quite frankly frustrating and shows a complete lack of understanding for what our students would like, which is effectively the status quo.

Karen Rothery, CEO of BUCS, told Felix that the options are being offered to regularize the way people are members of the organization. She said “BUCS has offered all current Medical School members the option to remain as full members of BUCS if they wish to, but operating to the same conditions of membership as all other member institutions – so all students of the Medical School compete in BUCS sports for the Medical School, and not the “parent” university. If the Medical School joins as part of the University, then the teams playing can still compete as Medical School teams under the sports management structures of the institution. This decision sits with the institution.”

She also added: “The BUCS membership has been involved in this debate through the BUCS Advisory Group, and overwhelmingly agrees that this approach is reasonable both for medical schools, and to all other members which join under the same conditions”.

ICSM are unhappy with the options that BUCS have presented as they feel that their heritage will be lost. They feel that they cannot accept either option as the first option limits participation of its students and that the second option strips ICSM of its name and recognition since teams would have to play under the ‘IC Banner’.

ICSM President, Shiv Vohra, said, “The BUCS situation is quite frankly frustrating and shows a complete lack of understanding for what our students would like, which is effectively the status quo. The lack of an appeals process for the decision by BUCS has left us with no other option but to protest against this and voice our discontent over the entire ‘consultation’ process.

We will be joining forces with all the other London med schools (and Cardiff) under the ULU Medgroup banner to protest outside the BUCS head offices on the afternoon of Thursday 21st March. Please come and show your support for our cause – just this one afternoon could potentially have such a huge impact on the shambles of a situation that we are currently in”

On Thursday 21 March, the protest took place outside the BUCS headquarters. The protest was made up of mainly of students from Kings, Cardiff, St George’s, Queen Mary, and Imperial. The largest contingent was Cardiff, with around 10 Imperial students showing up, including Shiv Vohra, ICSMSU President, who turned up straight from the train back from holiday (still with his suitcase on him).

The atmosphere was lively and jovial as well as loud. There was a megaphone, which was used to chant and talk at those inside the offices. Students went right up to the glass at the front of the offices and chanted at the staff inside, as well as playing a long, slightly annoying tune through the megaphone. Many students had brought placards that they had made, with some being particularly inventive – a couple showing that 'Ghandi' (Gandhi) and Stalin somehow had opinions on the matter. Some of the signs were put on the glass windows facing inside so that they could be seen by staff.

The crowd invented many chants; including a reworked rendition of “Hey Jude” that everyone inexplicably seemed to know, which was: “Hey BUCS, don't make us sad, take your verdict, and make it better. Remember, when you're 82, we're the ones who'll be caring for you”. Another was: “Karen and John sitting in BUCS, pretending not to give a fuck” to the tune of sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g, referencing two members of BUCS staff – most notably the Chief Executive Karen Rothery.

The staff were repeatedly asked for staff to come out to explain the decision, however they did not. Many people emailed Rothery after her email address was given out by the organisers. As well as this the Twitter hashtags #BUCSprotest and #SaveMedicSport were used, with people also tweeting at BUCS. Many of those at the protest sighted the long history that medic sport has. Rachel Heard tweeted “My grandpa played for @CardiffMedsRFC over 50 years ago. He still boasts about their team the spirit and the socials.”, while Harry Newman, President of Cardiff University Student Union, tweeted about the age of their sports teams, saying: “106 years... that's 101 years longer than BUCS has been around!”

Starting at about 2pm the protest went on until about 5pm. The protest didn’t get violent at any point, but at the end students did start banging on the windows. Two police officers turned up while they were hitting the windows and asked them to stop, which they did. Shortly after this the organisers decided that the point had been made and that they should leave. At the end everyone dispersed and left their signs outside the building.