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 30 August 2008 14:30 BST

Union warns UK education threatened by privatisation

Saturday, 17 May 2008 00:01
Union warns UK education jeopardised by rising privatisation

Health In Focus 

Further and higher education in the UK is being jeopardised by rising privatisation in the sector, according to the University and College Union (UCU).

In her speech to the 'Challenging the market in education' conference, Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, is to claim that the entire spectrum of education in Britain, from the curriculum through relations between staff and students to entry criteria, could be undermined by the spiralling amount of privatisation.

Private expenditure in tertiary education has increased by a staggering 85 per cent between 1995 and 2004 - the fastest-growing privatisation in that sector in Europe - while public injection of funds grew by a mere six per cent.

And according to Ms Hunt, who presides over the world's largest post-16 education union, this influx of private funding is leading to an increasing workload for under-pressure staff and causing institutions to take damaging "knee-jerk" decisions regarding the commercial viability of their departments.

"Strategically important departments, like physics at Reading University, [are] being axed at the whim of an anxious vice-chancellor because he or she doesn't see them as sustainable in the current market," Ms Hunt will say.

"They can do this with no regard for national or local provision, which has led to us now having areas of the country where a student seeking to study certain courses does not have a local option.

"Why should that student be forced to move to another part of the country just to follow their dream?" she is to ask.

"What happens if they cannot afford to?

"The market is failing. Our members feel that reality every day."

Ms Hunt will also claim the "emergence of a two-tier workforce" means the private sector is growing in strength while the public sector's working conditions worsen.

Ms Hunt's words coincide with the release of 'Marketisation and the growth of the private sector in tertiary education', a report concerning the options for universities and colleges considering their ability to provide services with and without an injection of private funding.End of story


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