We urge Swansea University to reverse its decision. We stand in solidarity with students and staff who resist complicity in climate breakdown.
The University of Swansea has performed a "shameful " u-turn on its commitment to cut careers and recruitment ties with fossil fuel companies against the wishes of student and staff campaigners.
The decision comes just as the country officially goes into drought and swelters under the forth record breaking heatwave of the year.
Professor Paul Boyle, the vice-chancellor of Swansea University, and his team removed pledges from its Ethical Careers Policy to “not knowingly devise marketing campaigns advertising...roles which contribute to the detrimental effects of the fossil fuels, mining, arms and tobacco industries” and to exclude oil, gas and tar sands companies from access to “careers fairs and employer events.”
The senior managers at the university have effectively now permitting fossil fuel companies to promote their work and advertise to students by removing the statements. The ban on tobacco companies remains in place.
Shameful
A staff member at Swansea University said: "I am extremely disappointed that Swansea University has chosen to remove the clause from their ethical careers policy which excludes fossil fuels, mining, and arms careers from any marketing campaigns.
"Considering Swansea prides itself on positively impacting the 'health, wealth, culture, and well-being of a global society' this feels like a step in the opposite direction.
"I hope that the university will reconsider this decision as I believe it has an ability and responsibility to show moral leadership for its staff, students, and community."
Josie Mizen, co-director of climate justice at People & Planet, said: “After months of deadly heatwaves, it is absolutely shameful that Swansea University has backslid on its commitment not to work with the industry most responsible for the climate crisis.
Student-led
"This decision tells students and staff loud and clear: that their futures, their communities and the planet they live on matter less than their university’s cosy relationship with an industry that puts profit ahead of people’s lives.
"We urge Swansea University to reverse its decision, and we stand in full solidarity with students and staff who resist university complicity in climate breakdown.”
In 2023, Swansea became the seventh UK university to exclude the fossil fuel industry from its careers and recruitment activities.
The decision came after an 18 month campaign by students and staff who were campaigning as part of the nationwide Fossil Free Careers campaign, coordinated by student-led charity People & Planet.
We urge Swansea University to reverse its decision. We stand in solidarity with students and staff who resist complicity in climate breakdown.
Deaths
Since then, more than 10 additional universities have committed to banning the fossil fuel industry from promoting jobs to students. The campaign has been endorsed by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU).
Swansea is one of 35 universities who this month have joined the Defence Universities Alliance (DUA), a scheme to promote greater collaboration between academia, the ministry of defence, and the arms industry.
A key criterion listed in the DUA Charter is to “promote careers in defence” and to “allow and support the attendance of defence sector firms [...] at careers events.”
The dropping of arms and fossil fuel exclusions from Swansea’s Ethical Careers Policy came just days after the university was announced as a founding member of the DUA. It also comes as the Met Office estimations that more than 2,700 excess heat-related deaths occurred in May and June.
Historic
Students and staff at the university had greeted Swansea's original decision to effectively ban fossil fuel and arms companies from its recruitment fairs with unmitigated delight.
Jean-Louis Button, a student campaigner at Swansea at that time. said back then: "It’s a real moral boost yet again to see the power that students hold and how real-life change can be manifested when a group of like-minded and dedicated students and staff join forces to help shape the future for the better."
Anna Piggott, a lecturer in Human Geography at Swansea University, was also quoted in a press release from that time “This is a huge, historic step for Swansea University. We’re so proud that the university has decided to cut ties with industries most responsible for the climate crisis after listening to what its students and staff wanted," she had said.
A spokesperson for the University of Swansea said: "The university is committed to providing impartial careers support, enabling students and graduates to make informed decisions about their future careers based on their own interests, values and aspirations.
"Our membership of the Defence Universities Alliance reflects the breadth of our expertise and creates new opportunities for collaboration, skills development and innovation. Alongside other member universities, we are committed to working in partnership to develop the talent, technologies and solutions that support the UK's future security, resilience and prosperity."
This Author
Brendan Montague is an editor at The Ecologist.
