Miss Beatrice Johansson’s Discretionary Fund for Non-Scottish British Students at The Glasgow School of Art

Performance/Participatory work

2016

I invited the audience to donate their leftover pennies, and pennies only, to my discretionary fund for the non-Scottish British Students at The Glasgow School of Art. The money collected was later distributed during the performance ’Payment Day’ in the McLellan Galleries in Glasgow. The students were handed 1 pence each to help them cover their student loans and cost of living.

The reason I chose to exclude Scottish students was the fact that their tuition fees are paid by the Scottish student funding agency, SAAS. The non-Scottish British students, on the other hand, have to pay £9000 each year to study in Scotland.

Collecting the money from the students themselves meant that they were actually funding their own discretionary fund. The futility of being funded just a penny was intended to highlight the absurdity of the tuition fee levels.

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