Vice Chancellors Failing Universities
Unite, Britain’s biggest Union, has today accused university Vice Chancellors of failing to properly deal with job security and cuts in Higher Education.
Higher education employers are refusing to sign up to a national process for dealing with job security as a result of the funding changes in the sector. Instead each university is making separate plans rather that taking a collective approach to university funding.
Already this year job cuts are planned at Kings College London, and at universities in Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Sussex, Aberystwyth, Manchester Metropolitan, Warwick, Stirling, and Strathclyde.
Despite the rise in student numbers and student enrolment applications, the sector looks likely to shrink staff numbers so affecting student quality of learning and driving down standards. Those staff who remain will see increased workloads and stress is already a significant factor.
Mike Robinson, national officer for Higher Education said;
“Higher education is a single public service, but institutional elitism is leading to chaos as universities make cuts without considering the overall effect to higher education in the UK. Vice Chancellors have spent too long in their ivory towers and now they are failing to take the necessary collective approach with their workers in dealing with job security and any planned shrinkage in the sector.”
“Students and the staff at higher education establishments across the country deserve national negotiations between unions and employers that would treat higher education as a single public service rather than the separate fiefdoms of the Vice Chancellors.”
” Universities have had the increase in student numbers and in some areas on fees, but are failing to work in a constructive way find a common solution on job security.”