Leicester Socialist Students
The Socialist has received an email from a spin doctor: De Montfort University (DMU) Press and PR Manager, Chris Thundow. They complain that our article ‘Leicester uni students and staff plan fight against cuts’ was inaccurate and that there are no direct threats of redundancies.
They object to us stating: “If voluntary redundancies are not forthcoming then there would be ‘formal’ i.e. compulsory redundancies”. Apparently it is ‘voluntary severance’ not ‘redundancy’. To argue the toss is semantics. DMU management is proposing a cut in the workforce to be achieved one way or another.
Chris asserts that because of a decline in the number of students, there has been a decline in the number of seminar groups and options, therefore reducing the number of staff needed. But less students could mean more input and support from hard-working academic staff, who already suffered job cuts two years ago. Reducing the number of options means fewer choices for students. Can Chris’s bosses guarantee that there won’t be an increase in workload for staff?
Our article reported “DMU has also invested in Cambodia and Kazakhstan”. Chris claims this is not the case, and that in fact the uni is making money by running degree courses in these countries. So the DMU badge is being used to boost the prestige of the Cambodian government? A US State Department report says: “Forces under [president] Hun Sen and the Cambodian People’s Party have committed frequent and large-scale abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture, with impunity”. The prime minister attended the campus opening ceremony. In Kazakhstan, freedoms of speech and assembly remain restricted and punished, and corruption is endemic.
Socialist Students will continue to fight to defend every job, and against any rise in tuition fees. We demand fully funded universities, paid for by the super-rich – and student and workers’ democratic control over how money is spent, as well as where it comes from.
