Universities

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, a free education activist network, writes that the HE reforms “are forcing marketisation on the university sector”, which will lead to universities “raising tuition fees, and allowing private providers further access to education provision.” In brief “(the reforms) constitute a wide-ranging assault on the principles of free, liberated, critical education.” The main mechanism through which this will be achieved is through a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). This will be similar to the Research Excellence Framework, a way of ranking universities...

The government’s higher education reforms include plans to raise university tuition fees. And Durham, Royal Holloway, Goldsmiths and Kent have all announced a £250 increase for next year. This, although the government’s tool for doing this — a Teaching Excellence Framework — has yet to even come into operation. Additionally, some universities, such as Manchester Metropolitan University, have announced £9,000 fees for 2017-18 while also stating in smaller letters on their website that “these fees are regulated by the UK government, and so may increase each year in line with government policy”...

Last month, students and education workers protested in Parliament Square as the House of Commons passed the Higher Education Bill at its second reading. After the protest National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts activists marched to the Department of Education, and staged a brief sit-in inside the building chanting “Drop the Bill”. The Bill will now continue progressing through Parliament. If passed, it will implement reforms that will force teachers, departments and universities to compete on market-oriented metrics that will be used to raise fees, and will drive public universities to go...

Teachers struck on Tuesday 5 July in a well supported national strike for guaranteed terms and conditions across all schools, increased funding to schools, and the resumption of negotiations on teacher workload. The strike saw large protests. The march in London was overwhelmingly young, and many young teachers told Solidarity sellers that they had joined the Labour Party in the past year. The government claims two thirds of schools remained open. However that figure masks a whole range of partial closures, and the increasing use of cover supervisors and support staff to keep schools open. The...

Workers at Southern struck again on 21 June in their dispute against “Driver Only Operation” (DOO). One of the strikers spoke to rank-and-file railworkers’ bulletin Off The Rails . The strike is about keeping the role of the guard (conductor) on the train. People think conductors just sell tickets, but we have safety responsibilities. For example, when a train is in a platform, it’s up to us to close the doors and make sure people don’t get trapped. If I close the doors and give the driver the “tip” to go and the signal is red and the train moves, then the responsibility is on the guard. We...

Catering staff at the University of Manchester have won a deal for no compulsory redundancies, no loss of hours, and no pay cuts. Their employer, UMC, a subsidiary company wholly owned by University of Manchester, had said in March that it would sack 46 of its 280-odd catering workers and move the rest to term-time only contracts — meaning a pay cut of about one third. Hannah McCarthy, the student union Campaigns and Citizenship Officer and vice-chair of Manchester Momentum, spoke to Solidarity . This is far from a complete victory. There will still be restructuring. But there will be no...

The Queen’s Speech — the government’s announcement of its plans for new laws — on 18 May is likely to include the Tories’ implementation of their Education White Paper and replacing the Human Rights Act. The Tories stated their thinking on the Human Rights Act as far back as 2005: “to liberate the nation from the... politically correct regime ushered in by Labour’s enthusiastic adoption of human rights legislation”. The Human Rights Act, legislated in 1998 by the Labour government, wrote the European Convention on Human Rights into British law. It enabled people to bring cases citing that...

The government’s Higher Education White Paper, released on Monday 16 May, is a clear ideological attack on students, workers, and universities as public institutions. Here are our initial responses. Free Education is “value for money” One of things we keep hearing about from the government is that universities need to be “value for money”. This value will come from bringing in more “choice” for students in where and what they study. This is very much an illusion and we should treat it as such. When you have to pay at least £9,000 a year upfront, you don’t have a proper choice. Students are...

UCU at the University of Nottingham is balloting for industrial action against threatened compulsory redundancies in the Faculty of Arts. The University that claims to be Britain's global university wants to reduce its offer in archaeology, and theology and religious studies, and close language courses including Dutch. 11.5 FTE posts are at risk. The student body is up in arms over the threat. They have organised several protests, a petition and a Facebook group: Resist Restructuring Nottingham. The proposed cuts come against a background of changes to the way students access student services...

In response to recent controversies around “no platforming” and censorship in the student movement, the Right2Debate campaign has sprung up. It opposes the growing practice of denying controversial, bigoted and “extremist” speakers platforms on campuses, and instead proposes that student unions adopt its model policy for dealing with these situations, focussed on ensuring that these speakers are countered in debate. Right2Debate’s starting principle — that in general, it is better to counter reactionary and bigoted views through debate, rather than “no platform” tactics — is a good one (though...