A hundred more students have joined the occupation, which has support from the likes of Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and the Thick of It star Peter Capaldi

Protests against outsourcing campus services at Sussex University escalated yesterday, when around 100 more students forced their way into a university conference room where a four-day long occupation is taking place.

There are now some 150 students inside the top floor of Bramber House. They're refusing to leave until the university management halts the bidding process for selling off services such as catering to private companies.

The occupation has received much media attention, as well as support from celebrities such as Noam Chomsky, journalist Tariq Ali and Acadamy award-wining actor Peter Capaldi, best known for his part as Malcolm Tucker in BBC sitcom The Thick of It.

But it was not until yesterday that the university's vice-chancellor, Michael Farthing, responded to the protesters by asking them to leave the building in return for a meeting with the registrar, John Duffy.

Farthing's eventual response to the occupation did little to entice students away from their pitch. The occupiers replied by saying: "If dissolving this occupation is the only condition upon which we can meet, then we will not have a meeting."

When asked why the university's management had not acted more promptly, Duffy replied: "We haven't had time to respond yet, it is not a priority at the moment." The university did, however, find time to hire additional security guards over the weekend.

The occupation isn't just a one-off event, it's the climax of an eight-month long campaign that has encompassed demonstrations, open talks and an online petition. It all began in May 2012, when Sussex University management said it was to outsource 10% of the university's workforce. This means 235 staff – mostly catering and waste disposal workers – will be transfered to external contracts. Many fear that such workers, who are already on low wages, will have their terms and conditions undermined.

So far, the university management has failed to explain its decision, says first-year student Kirsty Chan. "One main frustration is that we are not able to access the university's reasons for privatisation. Without the occupation many people on campus would have not known about the university's plans to outsource."

What's happening here at Sussex is a sign of broader changes in higher education, writes Michael Chessum, organiser for the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. He writes that the government's push towards privatisation is transforming universities "away from a conception of academic or critical community, and towards a model in which managerial governance, research and admissions are directly linked to private business models."

Not all students are bothered by the changes at Sussex. As third-year undergraduate Noel Kanyama points out, they may not have a direct impact on students. "I like to believe that the university would outsource to the best and most suitable bidder; and that the services would be quality-controlled by the university."

What is certain is that the Sussex University occupiers won't leave without a fight. With spirits high and excitement in the air, they tell me they "wish to continue into the foreseeable future."