Jailed students debate: you lost the privilege.

By Isa Hemphrey

We all let ourselves go at university. Some of us drink too much, some of us don’t do the washing up for a week and some of us sleep until 4pm (guilty).

Unless you are hoping to be an unemployed bum, this is the only time of your life when you can enjoy that lifestyle. Committing crime, however, is a whole different ball park. Students may not always be upstanding members of society, but you still have to obey the law like everyone else.

When you break it down to the fundamentals, breaking the law is proof that you can no longer function in civil society. Therefore, you should have certain privileges taken away from you.

Education is a privilege

Education is a privilege; being accepted into university is a privilege. When you waste your hard work at university by getting yourself arrested, it’s a slap in the face to the tutors who taught you and the person who didn’t get into university because you were a better candidate.

Therefore, I believe that if you do commit a crime and you have been found guilty of it, you should not be allowed back into university. Universities should be more vigilant about their attitude towards this.

It should not be a case of who gets to continue their studies depending on how severe their crime was. If you committed a crime, then you should be automatically kicked out. You have messed up – time to start all over again.

Bad reputation

And if you think I’m being too harsh, then consider these two things.  Firstly, if our university starts getting a reputation for letting criminals continue their studies, then this will have an adverse effect on the level of future applicants wanting to study here.

This may not seem to have a direct effect on you, until the funding the university gets from tuition fees drops and suddenly we start having to make cut backs.

Secondly, how comfortable could you study with someone who has, God forbid, been convicted of something violent or dangerous? How would that affect your ability to study?

University is meant to be a safe environment to learn and grow. This should not be ruined by those who want to make life difficult for themselves by breaking the law.