All students pay a significant amount towards their education and, with cuts at MMU in the news and being talked about around campus, MMUnion thought it might be helpful to present our understanding of how the current situation came about, and our position on the future.
Over the past four years, students have had to pay over £3000 for each year that they study for a higher education qualification. UK Universities saw a big increase in the amount of money that they had available to spend. Most universities had to use some of this money to plug gaps in existing underfunded parts of their institution, such as poorly paid lecturers, while others were able to invest in new innovative ways, such as new campuses or learning centres. At MMU, for example, academic staff were able to secure a 13.1% pay rise over three years so that we had well-paid and enthusiastic teachers and we were also able to develop plans to move to three main campuses, at All Saints, Birley Fields and Crewe so that students had outstanding facilities.
Universities currently receive approximately 27% of their income from student fees and at least 36% of their income from UK taxpayers (we say ‘at least’ because although ‘funding council grants’ describes most of the incomes that comes from the Government through the Higher Education Funding Councils, other parts of the Government, such as the Department for Health, also fund parts of UK Higher Education through support for medical education, for example).
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has been increasing the amount of money that it gives to MMU year-on-year for some time. Due to the recent recession, however, the Government has said that it will have to reduce the amount of money that HEFCE has to distribute to all UK Universities. HEFCE has, in turn, told all UK Universities to prepare themselves for cuts; HEFCE has said that the cuts are going to be £65 million next year and a further £180 million the year afterwards. There have also been further cuts across the sector, such as removing any Government funding for people doing second qualifications at the same or lower level than their previous ones (also known as ELQs).
Many other Universities and students’ unions are experiencing this situation, as Vice-Chancellors manage their institutions in a way that tries to balance quality with affordability, in order to achieve an excellent education for students. Universities as diverse as Bristol, London Metropolitan, Leeds, Bristol, Bradford, Swansea and Birmingham are all making announcements about reducing their staff numbers.
The amount that UK Universities has to pay out on staff is a continuously rising amount of money and, with cuts expected to hit us, our Vice-Chancellor has decided that the best thing to do is to seek to reduce the number of support staff in some areas where he thinks that there may be duplication of effort or work that doesn’t really add value to the student experience. He has said that he doesn’t want to, and doesn’t expect to, reduce any teaching or academic staff numbers.
At MMU, campus Trade Unions Unison and UCU don’t support the Vice Chancellor’s decision and are organising protests to try and stop the job losses. They say that the University can afford to keep these staff in place and that the reason for money shortfalls are other management decisions; they want the Vice-Chancellor to be held accountable for these other decisions and don’t want support staff to suffer.
MMUnion knows that this situation is complicated: students will be concerned about the impact of cuts on working people and also on their student experience. Our primary concern is to reflect the opinions of students as accurately as possible when we meet with the Vice-Chancellor, senior staff and the campus Trade Unions.
MMUnion President Rob Boardman says “I’m very aware of the depth of feeling across campus about the proposed job losses. Students are rightly concerned that these cuts may negatively impact their learning experience. That’s why I’m meeting with key stakeholders, including university senior staff and the Trade Unions to find out everything I can about these proposals.
“At all times, I want to make sure that students have all the information they need and that the different views of students are heard and respected. As we know more about the proposals, I will continue to keep students informed.”