19th June at the University of Warwick. There’s a Facebook event here. Details copied & pasted below: “No to the ‘insourcing’ and further casualisation of academic staff!” TeachHigher threatens job security and quality education at ALL UK universities. Make your… Read More ›
The petition is online here. Please forward to any Warwick staff you know who are opposed to casualisation in higher education. Events have been moving so rapidly that there’s no up to date report on events but this Times Higher… Read More ›
An important analysis on LSE Politics Blog looks at what the British Social Attitudes survey says about public attitudes towards higher education: In an era of rising tuition fees, deepening student debt and the global commodification of learning, any remaining… Read More ›
An extremely worrying article in the Guardian paints a depressing picture of the impending consequences for UK higher education if the current trajectory of ‘reform’ continues: Another pressure point is the falling applications from indebted English graduates to study for… Read More ›
The Consumer Experience of Higher Education, The Rise of Capsule Education by Deirdre McArdle-Clinton, Continuum (pbk), £27.99 I read this book as a treat after two week’s marking. At this point I should stop because the state of higher… Read More ›
New Faculty Majority Board Member Jack Longmate, writing in the NFM blog this week, thinks that there are fresh signs of “potential for traction in public policy thinking” in relation to the conditions faced by academics working off the career track… Read More ›
The present crisis is the result of a long fermentation of a set of complex and multiple ideas. These are derived from the inter- connection of the life-experiences of two generations – over a period of almost twenty years –… Read More ›
The thing is, you must remember how the newspapers are demonizing the students; there have been known incidents of agents provocateurs from the police who are stirring up violence, as well as a disaffected fringe element using the strike to cause trouble… Read More ›
A lone bagpiper plays traditional tunes during the Québec students strike protest march that took place on Monday May 7th, 2012 First of all, I wish to thank you for the interest that you are taking in our movement. In… Read More ›
Early indications suggest that applications from female students and those from poorer backgrounds have fallen ahead of the higher tuition fees next year. According to the first round of Ucas application figures, applications from men were down by 7% compared… Read More ›
A few days ago, the UK government publicised the new White Paper on Higher Education in England. (click on the title or on the image below to read the White Paper). … Read More ›
So far, the debate on the increase in tuition fees and cuts in Higher Education has focused mainly on the consequences for undergraduate students. We can all imagine the impact on undergraduates of being saddled with a debt that even… Read More ›
On 10th November 2010 an estimated 55,000 people marched in London against UK government plans to raise higher education tuition fees from £3200 to £9000 per student per year, while simultaneously cutting all public funding for social sciences, arts and… Read More ›
For those UK based readers concerned about coalition’s cuts agenda, there’s a website for the emerging movement against the cuts which is worth keeping an eye on: the Coalition of Resistance.
The Guardian, Friday 22 October 2010 The Browne report on higher education funding and student finance is wide of the mark in every respect (Universities: Shock at big cuts in teaching budgets, 21 October). The proposal to scrap the present… Read More ›
If someone had told me twenty years ago that some day I would yearn for the simplicity of socialist consumption, I would have laughed. In 1988, I was seven, the country’s economy was crumbling down, electricity was rationed (a scheme… Read More ›
UCU said yesterday that it was ludicrous that the amount of financial aid students currently receive is random and that universities with a good track of widening participation can only offer meagre support to their students. Responding to a report… Read More ›
Earlier this week NUS and UCU launched the ‘Fund our Future’ campaign and have written to our sister unions and community organisations to ask them to join with us in this progressive coalition to defend education and to get involved… Read More ›
New Activism or Old Politics? Sounding student reaction to HE’s crisis This free, one-day event will discuss likely student reactions to the impending cuts and rising fees in higher education.
Former BP boss Lord Browne has been parachuted into government as the ‘lead non-executive director’. He has been asked to use his experience to help’make Whitehall work in a more businesslike manner’. Rather worryingly he apparently represents a foretaste of things to… Read More ›
There’s a worrying story in the Times Higher Education this week relating to the government’s willingness to consider private companies taking over public universities. David Willetts has apparently come under intense pressure from BBP (and other private education providers) to begin an… Read More ›
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has received a revised grant letter from the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, that says specific funding for 10,000 students starting university this year will be axed… Read More ›
Management at the college have taken the unprecedented action of de-recognising the union in the latest phase of a bitter dispute over the imposition of new contracts. Please take a moment to sign the online petition which calls on the… Read More ›
Today is United for Education day and there’s a range of protests and events taking place across the country. Details can be found here. For those who can’t make it: sign the petition online here.
This will be a joint union day of action around the country in defence of education in further, higher and adult education as part of the “United for Education” campaign. The seven unions have called for protests, meetings and rallies… Read More ›
For the last month and a half staff and students in the Middlesex Philosophy department have been waging a campaign against its closure. As a hugely successful department, its mandated closure by the university’s administration (background here) placed those involved… Read More ›