The situation is very bad at South Bank University (London) where the Human
Geography programme has already been closed, and where there were strikes
last week in defence of jobs. Staff in the Faculty of the Built Environment
have been issued with redundancy notices and are to be re-interviewed for
their jobs with the stated intention that 40% of them will not be retained.
This, together with the other examples of 'restructuring' (closures and
mergers) posted to this list, is happening in a period in which the stated
intention (rhetoric) of the Government is to INCREASE levels of
participation in HE. In fact recruitment to HE seems to be static or even
declining slightly overall and the continued expansion in some parts of the
sector is slashing intakes in other universities - according to the THES
(29.06.01), recruitment at Luton last year was down 22.6%, South Bank -11%,
Sunderland -10%, Nottingham Trent -9%, East London -8.2%.
This situation is often attributed to the introduction of tuition fees in
England and Wales, and a number of campaigns have been initiated to scrap
these. But although this may be having an effect, tuition fees are
currently only payable by students whose parents have relatively high
incomes, and it seems likely that the abolition of means tested grants is
having a far greater impact. In England and Wales the children of the poor
no longer have the option of a truly full-time university education - with
time to reflect, and to rework their ideas. Instead, in order to top up
inadequate loan entitlements, they are juggling their attendance at lectures
and tutorials, and their assessment deadlines, with the commitments of
term-time paid work. I recall a report of research carried out on a sample
of students at Newcastle University (sorry but I don't have the reference to
hand) that stated the final overall mark for students in paid employment in
term-time was 3% lower than that of their peers: for these students a poorer
university experience was ultimately paired with a poorer final
qualification.
I support the concept of free university education, but the introduction of
tuition fees is surely the lesser of the two evils here - the wealthy can
afford to pay their children's tuition fees and support them financially
while they are at university. It is the absence of grants that is degrading
the quality of education experienced by those amongst the poor who go to
university, while also deterring many of their peers from applying in the
first place - it is also at least part of the reason for the current round
of job losses in the universities. Time for a cross-class alliance?
--
Dr Alan Patterson
Department of Geography & Earth Sciences
Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH UK
tel: 01895 274000 fax: 01895 203217
Dept secretary: 01895 203215
Dept website: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo
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