Eleanor Donne, Essex Socialist Party

‘The greatest power workers have is collective power and solidarity’. This was a powerful message from Andrea Egan, Unison’s newly elected left general secretary, to a large rally on 5 February against the closure of Essex University’s Southend Campus.

Union members from University and College Union (UCU), Unison, London and South East TUC, Southend Trades Council and Basildon and Thurrock Trades Council joined forces with students and the local community in Southend-On-Sea to say ‘No job cuts! Save our Campus!’ 

400 jobs are at risk at Essex University and 800 Southend students have been told their campus is closing and they will have to move to or travel to the campus at Colchester to study. 

UCU members (lecturers and course facilitators) are the first to show their collective power, having voted by 91% in favour of strike action to defend their jobs and their students’ courses. They will be on strike 12-19 February. Around half of the proposed job cuts affect the non-teaching staff at Southend and Colchester, who are represented by Unison, and they will be balloted shortly. As the UCU ballot is ‘live’ for six months, this opens up the possibility of coordinated trade union action to achieve maximum impact.  

Student campaigner Beth, who organised the first protest just days after the news of the plans broke before Christmas, urged fellow students to turn up at the UCU picket lines to show support. Students at Southend have shown a serious and determined attitude to the campaign.

Many of them are mature students studying for qualifications in nursing, social work, midwifery and health and social care. They are mostly women and many have dependent children. Many chose to study locally because their children are in school, and it would be hugely disruptive to move to Colchester or to travel two hours on the train each way to get to lectures. Many students also work to support themselves, as student finance is not enough to live on. They now face a ‘choice’ of giving up their course or their job. 

There is support from the wider community in Southend as campaigners have rightly pointed out the effect that losing the university in the city centre would have on Southend’s high street shops, cafes, cinema and pubs, where students both work and socialise.

Essex University has blamed their alleged financial crisis on falling numbers of international students and ‘a decade of stagnation in tuition fees’. Labour has kept the Tories’ 2024 changes to visa rules for international students and this appears to have led to a significant drop in their applications to UK universities. Universities have relied on income from international students, whose fees are not capped and who usually pay twice to three times what UK students do in fees. Applications to Essex University from international students were down by half this academic year. This has, they say, knocked a big hole in their ‘financial model’.  But Jordan Osserman of University of Essex UCU told the rally that they had presented a detailed, financially sound set of alternatives that would secure Essex University’s future without closing Southend and without redundancies. The bosses at Essex University are claiming ‘commercial confidentiality’ to avoid scrutiny of their accounts by the trade unions, students or the wider community. 

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, addressing the rally, had some advice for Kier Starmer: “less protecting Peter Mandelson and your cronies and more protecting Southend Campus”. We agree.

Full funding

But this is a bigger issue than one local university. The Office for Students (OFS) say around 25 English universities could be at risk of closing within a year. The Times Higher Education analysis found that almost one third of UK universities reported financial deficits. Most universities, including Essex, have had previous rounds of voluntary redundancies. The current round of cuts to courses, pay and pension schemes across universities is reaching a crisis point. 

Socialists reject the idea that universities should act like private corporations, competing for customers and sacrificing arts courses that are seen as not useful to business or tech firms. Schools, colleges and universities are not ‘businesses’ any more than hospitals or care homes should be. They should be publicly funded and accessible, including to the local community.

We say:

  • Open the books! Student representatives and staff Trade Unions should have access to the financial information held by Essex University. No hiding behind ‘business confidentiality’
  • No compulsory redundancies at Essex University – Support the Essex University UCU strike 12-19 February
  • Trade unions and student bodies to continue to hold Southend Labour MPs to account – demand emergency funding from the government to prevent Southend Campus closing