Liverpool wins; struggle erupts at Edinburgh
Workers and students at Liverpool University have defeated management’s plans to close the university’s statistics, philosophy, and politics and communication studies departments. For more information, see the Times Higher Education Supplement here.
Meanwhile a massive struggle has started against harsh cuts in modern languages at Edinburgh University. For more information see here or email ENS Steering Committee member Katherine McMahon at katherine.a.mcmahon@gmail.com
Defend jobs, services and education! March in solidarity with London Met, 23 May!
Following a successful day of strike action by workers at London Metropolitan Univerity over massive cuts on 7 May, and a student occupation in solidarity…
PCS, Unison, UCU and London Metropolitan University student groups are holding a march to defend jobs, services and education in London on Saturday 23 May.
The March starts at Highbury fields (near City university) at 11am, passing London Met, and finishing in Archway Park.
With the prospect of 800 job losses at London Met, and hundreds at local civil service offices, and with more student action on the way by London students, this is the time to show that there is national opposition to cuts in education.
ENS is trying to mobilise national support for the student struggles at London Met - come down on the 23rd to show that the fighback is national!
For more see savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com/2009/04/march-to-defend-jobs-learning.html
For the Facebook group for the ENS contingent, see here.
London Met students occupy against cuts
As part of the ongoing campaign against massive cuts at London Metropolitan University - which saw workers taking a day of strike action on 7 May, and will see further action on 23 May - students in the art, media and design department have occupied part of a building at the City campus on Commercial Road. It seems that the university will try to evict them. It is vitally important that we mobilise the maximum possible solidarity.
There will be a demonstration tonight (Tuesday 12 May), outside the building at 5.30pm - arrive from 5pm
See here for location details:
www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/commercial-road.cfm
For more information see
savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com
www.thelondonmetcrisis.blogspot.com
www.lmuucu.org.uk
twitter.com/savelondonmet
or the Facebook group here
Messages of solidarity to savelondonmet@gmail.com
More soon.
A UCU member on their dispute
By Camila Bassi (Camila is a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam, writing in a personal capacity)
Lecturers at two thirds of higher education institutions face the real threat of losing their jobs. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has said that 100 institutions are planning collective redundancies. While most of these 100 institutions have yet to go public, Liverpool University has announced eight of its forty five departments risk closure, Thames Valley has proposed shutting completely one of its four campuses, and one in four staff at London Metropolitan University face the sack. Reduced student funding in the area of health means nursing and health profession departments across the UK also face cuts. So too do university departments who scored 1* or 2* in the recent RAE exercise, i.e. those places deemed at the ‘low end’ of a crude audit of academic productivity and ‘quality’. Work intensification is another major issue, especially if one combines the higher number of students expected to go to university from September 2009 (due to the recession) and planned job cuts and recruitment freezes. The student-staff ratio for UK universities was 9/1 thirty years ago, today it is 18/1 (higher than France, Germany and the United States).
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“Education Not for Sale: make a stand against the marketisation of our universities” protest
Meet 10am, Thursday 7 May
Outside Universities UK conference
1 Great George Street, London SW1
(Westminster or St James Park Tube)
For the Facebook event see here.
More information below.
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Glasgow parents fight school closures with direct action
By Katherine McMahon
In Glasgow, the city council have voted to shut down 23 primary schools and nurseries. The motive is nakedly stated as £3.7 million per year of savings, and there is no plan to build new schools - all the children from these schools will simply be moved into other schools, with class sizes reaching over 40. This means that the plans affect not only the children from the closed schools but also those in the receiving schools - which adds up to nearly a fifth of all primary school children in the city. The standard of education in the city will drop; children will have to take buses to school; communities will be broken up.
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