Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts.
We've already lost 150+ people. Courses are being abolished, and choice removed. This is only the start - it's going to be awful under Labour and beyond disastrous under a Tory government. Reduced courses, larger classes, unqualified teachers (e.g. postgraduates instead of academic staff), knackered buildings, no course materials.
Unless you're senior management of course. Sacking people earns you performance-related pay. And of course the posh universities will be exempt, as usual. See you on the dole queue.
The Hegemon gets a mention in the list of doom:
More than 200 jobs losses at King's College, London, around 150 at the University of Westminster and, unions claim, as many as 700 at Leeds, 340 at Sheffield Hallam and 300 at Hull.
• Entire campus closures at Cumbria and [Hegemon] universities, where buildings will be mothballed and students transferred to other sites.
• Teesside University scrapping £2m worth of scholarships and bursaries that would have helped poorer students. It will also share services with a further education college in Darlington.
• Postponing plans for a £25m creative arts building at Worcester and £12m science block at Hertfordshire.
• Under-subscribed arts and humanities courses are being dropped. The University of the West of England has already stopped offering French, German and Spanish; Surrey has dropped its BA in humanities.
• Student/lecturer ratios are expected to rise, with more institutions using postgraduates and short term staff filling in for professors made redundant.
Ballots for industrial action are due to be held or are pending at the University of the Arts, Sussex University, the University of Gloucestershire and King's College London. Lecturers at Leeds – where 750 posts are at risk – voted by a large majority to strike this week.
7 comments:
And no more photocopied hand-outs, according to my lecturer on Friday.
What's that all about?!
That's right. We're going paperless to save money. Except that since the printing ban, the school's printing costs have rocketed!
This nightmare will lead to such chaotic teaching too, lecturers fearing for their jobs will hardly create peaceful learning environment or successful interaction. The Government have to halt such proceedings or fear the worse as future graduates via e-learning and textbooks leave without ever being inspired or involved leading to ever widening implications for cognitive, language and social development.
In the meantime, show the Government to be the callous organization they are:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/deafschoolclose/
For those of you who follow my blog, please stop following to halt the poker invasion and follow this instead:
http://romanistales.blogspot.com/
Thank you.
The University sector get smacked in the face by the real world with a resounding thud.
Local government has been subjected to this kind of backwards thinking (efficiency savings - yes, but at what cost?) by New Labour (and previously Thatcher - they really are as bad as each other - vote Lib Dem - investing in education is one of their main manifesto policies, as is meaningful political reform, Glass Steagall style regulations on banks, and developing greener businesses/infrastructure) and this level of funding cuts for years. If the consequences of this in local government are anything to go by (read my PhD!) then the people who will lose out are definately the students (citizens in the case of local government) - not only will lecturers be fearing for their jobs there will be less of them but the same amount of work, so it will be impossible for them to conduct quality research and deliver quality teaching, and as University funding is directly linked to quality research, the outcome I'm afraid seems inevitable - the McDonaldization of teaching on a national scale.
What kind of way is this to invest in our future generation? Strike with your lecturers students - we need a revolution!
Excellent points there, Kate. I particularly agree with the Lib Dems comment.
However I fear a strike would be too idealistic in this current environment as many students have responsibilities, wish for a quick degree and care little for the predicament many will face also loathe to cause such attention in light of management crackdown (as our University has seen, I was even threatened with court action!) would serve as deterrence. So to grasp the majority of ‘silent’ students much like with anti-war movements of the past that angered the general population so e-petitions and even plain bits of paper filled signatures passed around the campus would show unity and spread across the UK will prove the Government cut-downs to be futile in a damming inducement of student rights that my charity, ‘Skill’ is serving to protect.
I shall be attending a Youth Party meeting in the near future, a party purely for students to campaign and discuss ideas in London and this topic will be brought up so any ideas would be great.
Society is in a mess, and it is immoral that higher education should be punished for the incompetency of those in ‘power’ who have created this appalling situation.
The election will not result in any improvements, just more ways to screw money out of the masses – who will continue to put up with this abuse without complaining.
Sue I agree, what politicians have done and have planned with regard to the public sector is equally as immoral. But, until I am proved otherwise, I will continue to believe that politicians put their own self interest above the interests of the electorate, and yes, the apathy of the latter is equally very demoralising.
Benjamin, I agree with you about strikes, it was a flippant remark (apologies) and petitions may well be a safer and equally as productive a route. I wish you all the best with the Youth Party, but I am hoping more people will recognise that the Lib Dems represent the majority of electorate's best interests the most and will vote for them. As for students rights, I say all young people's rights are in jeopardy now, as many who are applying to University this year will not get a place.
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