Tag Archives: UK

NUT teaching union unanimously backs a March walkout

Posted on February 6, 2012 by | Comments Off on NUT teaching union unanimously backs a March walkout

NUT teaching union unanimously backs a March walkout
The NUT teachers’ union is pushing for a coordinated, national public sector strike in March over pensions. The union’s national executive committee passed a resolution committing the general secretary and deputy general secretary to …
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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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UK: 2 million public sector workers strike

Posted on November 30, 2011 by | Comments Off on UK: 2 million public sector workers strike

The Guardian: Day of strikes as millions heed unions’ call to fight pension cuts
• Disruption across UK as many services come to virtual halt
• Airports, schools, rail services and hospitals affected
• Reform of public sector pensions is at heart of dispute

The UK is experiencing the worst disruption to services in decades as more than 2 million public sector workers stage a nationwide strike, closing schools and bringing councils and hospitals to a virtual standstill.

The strike by more than 30 unions over cuts to public sector pensions started at midnight, leading to the closure of most state schools; cancellation of refuse collections; rail service and tunnel closures; the postponement of thousands of non-emergency hospital operations; and possible delays at airports and ferry terminals.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions

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THE ASSAULT ON UNIVERSITIES: A MANIFESTO FOR RESISTANCE

Posted on September 11, 2011 by | Comments Off on THE ASSAULT ON UNIVERSITIES: A MANIFESTO FOR RESISTANCE

THE ASSAULT ON UNIVERSITIES: A MANIFESTO FOR RESISTANCE

The UK White Paper on universities that was published in June contains yet more proposals that will embed the market ever deeper into our educational system through the entrance of private providers and the extension of a logic of financialisation. The deadline for submissions is 20 September and we encourage you to make a response (http://bit.ly/jpLET3).

We would also like to let you know that the manifesto has now been published in a book, ‘The Assault on Universities: A Manifesto for Resistance’ (Pluto Press) which contains a series of short essays identifying the consequences of the reforms as well as possible alternatives. We are sure you will find it both stimulating and useful in your response to the attacks on higher education.

Details of the book are at: http://bit.ly/lKgYdE

You can also use the book and manifesto as the focus for a meeting, debate or other form of campaign activity where you work.

We would be delighted to help arrange a meeting on your campus and to build up a head of steam against the government’s disastrous reforms.

No university is immune and there will certainly be a good audience for a lively and topical meeting.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us: hemanifesto@gmail.com (or d.freedman@gold.ac.uk if you have trouble accessing gmail).

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Posted in Corporate University

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At least 12,000 schools hit by teachers’ pension strike in UK

Posted on June 30, 2011 by | Comments Off on At least 12,000 schools hit by teachers’ pension strike in UK

BBC: At least 12,000 schools hit by teachers’ pension strike

Teachers and lecturers make up the bulk of those protesting
Continue reading the main story

Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England and Wales have missed lessons as teachers staged a one-day strike over changes to their pensions.

At least 12,000 schools are known to have been closed or partly closed. Unions say the total is even higher.

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Posted in Unions

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UK teachers strike over attacks on pensions

Posted on June 29, 2011 by | Comments Off on UK teachers strike over attacks on pensions

UK teachers strike over attacks on pensions.

Details at:

http://www.teachers.org.uk/

http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5616

http://www.atl.org.uk/

Strikes will take place in schools, further education colleges and universities. This is action across the UK education sector on an unprecedented scale.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions

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Marketization and Nationalization in Britain?

Posted on November 30, 2010 by | Comments Off on Marketization and Nationalization in Britain?

The Chronicle: Marketization and Nationalization in Britain?

U.K. higher education is certainly going through challenging times. They are not as difficult as some overseas commentators have suggested. It is not like California. Home and E.U. students of all stripes will still have access to loans and no one will have to pay up front. Students from less well-off families will be better off. The science and research budget has been protected. And so on.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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British Universities to See Budgets Slashed

Posted on October 20, 2010 by | Comments Off on British Universities to See Budgets Slashed

The Chronicle: British Universities to See Budgets Slashed

Higher education will suffer major budget cuts under a comprehensive spending review released on Wednesday by the British government.

The much-anticipated—and dreaded—report outlines the coalition government’s plans to address the largest budget deficit Britain has faced outside of wartime. Almost all government departments, excluding health and overseas aid, will see their budgets cut by an average of 19 percent over four years, according to the so-called spending review. Cuts of 83 billion pounds (about $131-billion) are expected to result in the elimination of 490,000 public-sector jobs.

The news for British universities is particularly bad: Excluding research support, which will remain flat, the amount of money going to higher education will decline by 40 percent over the next four years, from 7.1 billion pounds (about $11-billion) to 4.2 billion pounds (about $6.6-billion).

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British Industry Groups Criticize Government Goal of Increasing College Participation

Posted on March 30, 2010 by | Comments Off on British Industry Groups Criticize Government Goal of Increasing College Participation

The Chronicle: British Industry Groups Criticize Government Goal of Increasing College Participation

A leading British business industry organization has called for an “urgent review” of the government’s target of increasing university participation rates to 50 percent of the young population, the Financial Times reported. The group, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, also released survey results showing that 59 percent of recent graduates who have a job are not working in a field related to their degrees. The higher number of competing graduates, it says, is reducing the likelihood that they will be able to find suitable jobs. Another industry organization, the Association of Graduate Recruiters, has also criticized the target, calling it an artificial goal that “has driven down standards and devalued the currency of a degree.”

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Posted in Students

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Business Leaders Oppose Democratization of British Universities

Posted on March 9, 2010 by | Comments Off on Business Leaders Oppose Democratization of British Universities

The Guardian: Abolish Labour target of sending 50% to university, report urges
The government’s strategy has driven down standards and devalued degrees, say graduate recruiters

The national graduate recruitment exhibition at the Barbican in London last year. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Labour’s target of getting 50% of young people to go to university has driven down standards and devalued degrees – and the next government should abolish it, leading graduate recruiters argued today.

The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which represents 750 employers, many of them blue-chip companies, also called for a phased increase in top-up fees. It said its proposals would force higher education institutions to be more open about the job prospects their courses offered.

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Posted in Corporate University, Equity, Students

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UK: Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts

Posted on February 15, 2010 by | Comments Off on UK: Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts

The Guardian: Thousands to lose jobs as universities prepare to cope with cuts

• Post-graduates to replace professors
• Staff poised to strike over proposals of cuts

Universities across the country are preparing to axe thousands of teaching jobs, close campuses and ditch courses to cope with government funding cuts, the Guardian has learned.

Other plans include using post-graduates rather than professors for teaching and the delay of major building projects. The proposals have already provoked ballots for industrial action at a number of universities in the past week raising fears of strike action which could severely disrupt lectures and examinations.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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UK: Cash-starved universities will have huge classes, says union

Posted on January 13, 2010 by | Comments Off on UK: Cash-starved universities will have huge classes, says union

The Guardian: Cash-starved universities will have huge classes, says union

Lecturers claim savage government cuts will close universities and send 14,000 academics to the dole queue

Universities in the UK will be among the most overcrowded in the world within three years if savage government cuts to higher education go ahead, academics warned today.

The lecturers’ union, UCU, said more than £900m of cuts announced last month would fill lecture halls with “some of the biggest class sizes in the world” by 2013.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Working conditions

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UK: University presses ‘struggling’ in recession

Posted on November 9, 2009 by | Comments Off on UK: University presses ‘struggling’ in recession

Bookseller.com: University presses ‘struggling’ in recession

A number of the UK’s university presses are “struggling” to keep their heads above water in the face of the recession and pressure from rising student fees.

There is a move to create a Europe-wide association for university presses, with one of its main aims to support publishers, but it was revealed this week that Middlesex University Press will close by the end of the year.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding, Economics

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UK: Students get marks just for turning up

Posted on September 10, 2009 by | Comments Off on UK: Students get marks just for turning up

Times Higher Education: Students get marks just for turning up

Universities accused of “bribing” undergraduates. Rebecca Attwood reports

Universities have been accused of “bribing” students with marks simply for attending seminars, a move critics say encourages them to adopt casual and cynical attitudes to academic work.

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Posted in Academics

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UK: Professor in exam scandal quits

Posted on September 8, 2009 by | Comments Off on UK: Professor in exam scandal quits

Manchester Evening News: Professor in exam scandal quits

THE professor at the centre of an exam marking scandal has quit after being found guilty of gross misconduct.

Annmarie Surprenant was a top lecturer at Manchester University and a world-leading expert in researching new drugs.

But she resigned from her job, which commanded a six-figure salary, after an internal inquiry looked at accusations she had faked the signatures of colleagues.

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Brits discuss adoption of American university ranks

Posted on June 16, 2009 by | Comments Off on Brits discuss adoption of American university ranks

The Chronicle: Britain’s Title Wave

With its lords and ladies, ancient honorifics, and titles both inherited and earned, Britain is a status-conscious realm. The halls of academe are no exception.

At most British universities, the title of professor has traditionally been awarded only at the culmination of an academic journey beginning as a lecturer, progressing through senior and principal lecturer, and, finally, reaching reader. But some universities have remained aloof from common practice, conferring professorships with relative rarity.

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Posted in Faculty

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UK: Teachers to strike at academies

Posted on June 5, 2009 by | Comments Off on UK: Teachers to strike at academies

BBC News: Teachers to strike at academies

More than 120 teachers at two newly-designated academy schools in Essex are due to strike over fears of increased working hours and reduced holidays.

Members of the teacher unions the NUT and NASUWT at Chalvedon and Barstable secondary schools in Basildon are due to strike on Tuesday 19 May.

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Privatise top five UK universities to form Ivy League, says Imperial head

Posted on June 3, 2009 by | Comments Off on Privatise top five UK universities to form Ivy League, says Imperial head

Evening Standard: Privatise top five UK universities to form Ivy League, says Imperial head

Britain’s best universities should be privatised to form an elite US-style Ivy League, a leading higher-education figure said today.

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Posted in Corporate University

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Captive knowledge: The funding for academic research has been taken over by business

Posted on May 12, 2009 by | 1 comment

Guardian: Captive Knowledge

May 12, 2009 By George Monbiot

The funding for academic research has been taken over by business

Why is the Medical Research Council run by an arms manufacturer? Why is the Natural Environment Research Council run by the head of a construction company? Why is the chairman of a real estate firm in charge of higher education funding for England?

Because our universities are being turned by the government into corporate research departments. No longer may they pursue knowledge for its own sake: now the highest ambition to which they must aspire is finding better ways to make money.

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More students + less money = no diplomas

Posted on April 7, 2009 by | Comments Off on More students + less money = no diplomas

The Guardian: More students + less money = no diplomas

The government’s decision to cut sixth-form funding has stunned schools and colleges

Brian Rossiter is struggling to come to terms with a government decision to cut funding for what was supposed to be one of its biggest priorities in education. Rossiter is head of an 11-18 comprehensive and was told last week that funding for its thriving sixth form – which has grown by 28% in just two years as teenagers have been persuaded of the value of further study – is to be reduced by nearly 4% from September.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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M.A. in “Twitter Studies”?

Posted on March 31, 2009 by | Comments Off on M.A. in “Twitter Studies”?

Inside Higher Ed: Master’s Degree in Twitter Studies

Birmingham City University, in Britain, is attracting attention and some skepticism with its announcement that it is starting a new master’s degree program in social media, with an emphasis on training people to work in marketing or consulting for those who want to better understand Twitter, Facebook and other popular online services. One student told The Telegraph: “Virtually all of the content of this course is so basic it can be self taught. In fact most people know all this stuff already. I think it’s a complete waste of university resources.” One faculty member responded (on Twitter, of course) that the student was “uninformed.”

Master’s Degree in Twitter Studies

Birmingham City University, in Britain, is attracting attention and some skepticism with its announcement that it is starting a new master’s degree program in social media, with an emphasis on training people to work in marketing or consulting for those who want to better understand Twitter, Facebook and other popular online services. One student told The Telegraph: “Virtually all of the content of this course is so basic it can be self taught. In fact most people know all this stuff already. I think it’s a complete waste of university resources.” One faculty member responded (on Twitter, of course) that the student was “uninformed.”

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Posted in Academics

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