A final reflection on the QMary countermapping adventure

It's been a long time since the QMary Countermapping project came to an end, and much has changed in our lives and the world since. This post is to close the circle, and offer some resources to those of you who might stumble across it in the future.

Just as we predicted over a year and a half ago (see top left corner of the CounterMap) QMary has now officially joined the Russel Group, to the great delights of its Principal and to the dismay of the local and international students whose grades, income and profile won't cut the elite mustard.
Everywhere the process of neoliberalisation of university education is becoming ever more shameless and relentless. In the next academic year UK home students will be charged three times the current tuitions fees, while the UKBA monsters have all but multiplied, making this country and its education system ever more inaccessible except for the lucky few. On the bright side, new education sector strikes and marches are being called for next autumn, hopefully offering a space for organising and debating after this confused year of picking up the pieces of last year's student movement.

As for our countermapping efforts, about a year ago we were asked by Lateral to write a short reflection on the making of the map and the game, and it is with great pleasure that we are finally announcing its publication in the first issue of the journal: http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/lateral/issue1/countermapping.html
Beside the text, Lateral has also created a navigable version of the map, which can finally be downloaded in high resolution, and, most importantly, an interactive version of the game!

We hope this will provide a useful online reference for all that are mapping and challenging the rules of the neoliberal university across the globe!

in struggle and maps,
Counter/Mapping Qmary