A message from Roger

The UCU general secretary ballot result has now been declared and Sally Hunt has been elected. The union and our members face major and difficult challenges from employers and government in almost every aspect of our working lives. The turnout was just 13.9 per cent which in itself suggests the scale of the challenge the union faces. I wish Sally Hunt very well in meeting those challenges. To meet them successfully will require a clear strategic vision and a determined articulate response which members can have confidence in and ownership of. I will seek to play my part in ensuring that is the case through my continuing role as Head of Equality and Employment Rights Finally I would like to sincerely thank the hundreds of members who sent messages of support and campaigned during the election.

Monday, 22 January 2007

Thursday 18th January

Fees - ensuring class regulates access to education

Tuition fees for undergraduates in England will have to rise to £6,000 a year or more to cover teaching costs, according to a Guardian survey of university vice-chancellors and senior staff.
It reveals growing unease about the funding system which came into force last autumn, with suggestions that some science courses could cost students up to £10,000 a year when the current structure is reviewed.
Guardian 18th January

As both AUT and NATFHE said at the time, the push for lifting the cap on top up fees was inevitable from the moment variable top up fees was agreed in principle. There are two drivers.

Firstly, the government wishes to reduce the relative proportion of higher education funding originating with the Treasury so a mix of fee income and increased private sector funding is encouraged.

Secondly, the government’s more general conviction that the private sector does things better and that the “market” is necessarily a good thing for public services finds expression in a number of ways. One of these is using fees to regulate access and encourage competition.

It is already using the mechanism ferociously in adult education where fees are resulting in reintroducing class as a key factor in access. As I tour the country I hear example after ludicrous example of fees being used to price education out of reach of working class people. In Leicester I even heard from members of a short course on “How to cook on a budget” costing £40.

For decades we were told the “leisure society” would lead to a wonderful flowering of education and leisure in old age. This government determination to replace education as pleasure, a liberating force, and a public good, with narrow vocationalism is both sad and pathetic.

I responded on behalf UCU but the real work will be a grass roots campaign with mainstream political support to stop the vandalism of adult education: http://www.politics.co.uk/press-releases/education/higher-education/higher-education-funding/ucu-response-increased-student-fees-$463683.htm


Quote of the day

“After just a couple of weeks of an ESOL course it was fantastic to have a course member tell me that because of what she had learned, she was able to call an ambulance using 999 and just about explain over the phone what had happened to her husband”

USDAW speaker at UCU ESOL conference.
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A trade unionist all his working life. An activist and a proud campaigner, Roger has consistently worked to defend human rights of workers. As the leader of the Equality and Employment Rights team in the newly formed UCU he continues to unite the movement around equality and keep employment rights at the top of the agenda.