Universities

Campaigners hoping to save The Women’s Library at London Metropolitan University held their first public meeting on 6 July. This follows the campaign’s success in garnering support with an online petition that has attracted 12, 000 signatories. The Women’s Library, currently housed in Lottery-funded, purpose-built premises, is under threat from management cuts. This is not only about a detrimental cut to a vital women’s service but about the future of Higher Education. It will contribute to the government’s vision of a two-tier Higher Education system, in which wealthy “Russell Group”...

The GMB union has launched a landmark legal challenge against contractor Carillion, after evidence emerged that it had been involved in large-scale blacklisting of trade union activists in the construction industry. The case is part of a wider labour movement campaign on the issue, blown open by the revelation in January 2012 that the shadowy “Consulting Association”, a data collection company used by numerous construction industry contractors, was holding files on over 3,000 workers containing information that could only have come from the police or other security services. Meanwhile, GMB...

The Women’s Library, which has been housed by the London Metropolitan University for ten years, could be closed. The library holds the biggest collection of literature dedicated to the history of women and attracts around 30,000 visitors every year. In March London Metropolitan’s Board of Governors decided to find The Women’s Library a new home or sponsor, or to run it as a skeleton service from December, reducing opening hours to one day per week. Vice Chancellor Malcolm Gillies has said the university can no longer fund a service that is used by so many from outside the institution and that...

There is a rift emerging not just within British universities, but between them. The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts has released a report detailing the incredible expansion of executive pay in the last decade. High pay at the elite universities has spiralled out of control; a total of £382 million is being spent on the highest paid members of staff in just 19 universities, roughly double what it was a decade ago. These universities are spending nearly 2% more of their total income on high paid jobs than they were a decade ago, while cutting back on student support and now nearly £4 in...

London Metropolitan University has historically had one of the most diverse student populations in the UK, in terms of class and ethnic background. It has been the target for some of the most savage cuts in higher education. Despite a management re-shuffle in 2009/2010, the cuts are continuing. Claire Locke, president of London Met Students Union, spoke to Solidarity : “We’ve had 226 redundancies announced, mainly of academic workers. That’s particularly shocking given that the university has over-recruited this term and most services are over-subscribed, so it’s impossible for management to...

Late on Monday 23 January, the Daily Telegraph website reported that the government has shelved its Higher Education Bill. This Bill would have made it easier for private, for-profit companies to run courses in UK universities. It will now not be debated until at least 2013, and may be put back even further, or lost altogether. Details are still unclear, but this decision marks a major climbdown for the Government, which is effectively junking a central plank of its education reform policy and stymying the process of privatisation of education. It has been made possible by two years of mass...

The November 23 day of action in education called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is unfolding, with demonstrations and occupations at a number of universities. Follow the day's actions as they happen on the NCAFC's live blog . The day of action called by the NCAFC is aimed at building pressure on Vice Chancellors to guarantee that they will not make cuts, aid in the privatisation of Higher Education, and to reject the government's Higher Education White Paper. The NCAFC is asking local activist groups to challenge their VC to sign the 7-point Vice Chancellors' Pledge The day of...

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts has called a demonstration, backed by the NUS, to protest against the government's privatisation and cuts agenda for Higher Education. We demand free education, funded by taxing the rich; and the withdrawal of the HE White Paper, which is a charter for profiteering in education. The demonstration will leave from ULU on Malet Street, London, at 12pm on Wednesday November 9 and march to Trafalgar Square and then on to Moorgate. Be there! Facebook event here More details on the NCAFC website There will be a national demonstration of electricians working...

On 9 November students march to protest against fees, cuts, the scrapping of Educational Maintenance Allowance for older school students, and the Government’s plans to further “marketise” universities. Access and foundation courses — through which working-class students without the necessary A-levels can qualify quickly to get a chance to take a degree — will suffer specially under the Government’s new plans for universities, set out in its June White Paper. Universities, keen to cut costs, will outsource such courses to private companies, like Apollo. Apollo runs “sub-prime” universities in...