Unions representing 150 million students worldwide last week called on leaders meeting at the G8 and G20 summits in Canada to forge plans to meet the UN principle of equal access to free higher education, to support education as a public good, and to chart courses towards a more equitable global economy and against poverty and global warming.

The statement was issued by the All-Africa Students Union, Asian Student Association, Canadian Federation of Students, European Student Union, General Union of Arab Students, International Students Union of Norway, Organizacion Continental Latinoamericana Y Caribena de Estudiantes and the United States Student Association.

The students said the world was at a crossroads. "With ballooning levels of public debt, many powerful interests are pushing governments to cut social spending and privatise public services. There is no question that such measures will hurt the people of the world, especially those who already face economic or social marginalisation," the students said.

"To secure economic and social prosperity for the future, countries must resist the urge to privatise education and other public services. Education is an essential public good and a fundamental right for all, as is access to health care, nutrition and other social services and infrastructure."

The students affirmed their belief in the rights of people, on the basis of capacity, to participate in free, high quality, universally accessible post-secondary education, and to teach, learn, research and publish "free of orthodoxy or threat of reprisal and discrimination".

Global equality and prosperity could only be ensured through people having universal access to accountable, quality public services, including higher education, the students continued, and "the world's rich nations have both the ability and responsibility to work with the rest of the world in meeting these goals".

The students called on G8 and G20 leaders to chart a course for the global economy that prioritises such principles, and to propose "bold action to combat global poverty, make real progress to prevent global warming and transform the global economic and financial system to create a fair and sustainable world".

World leaders, the student statement said, should also draft plans to meet the principle enshrined in the UN Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights asserting the right to equally accessible, free higher education for all people with the capacity.

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