Aris Prevost, Cardiff Socialist Students
The last academic year has seen crisis after crisis in higher education. Universities across the country have been announcing job cuts and the closure of courses. At Cardiff, they announced 400 job cuts, including the closure of the School of Nursing and the School of Music, before they scaled back these plans due to protests and staff taking voluntary redundancies.
Elsewhere, Durham has announced 200 jobs are set to go, and Dundee has said it has plans to cut a staggering 632 jobs, which bosses say may have to increase to fix a £35 million deficit. Years of mismanagement at every level in higher education has left universities facing a £1.6 billion deficit nationwide. The University and College Union (UCU) reports that this could result in 10,000 jobs being cut, a total of 5% of the entire workforce.
Given this year of misery for staff members in universities, the UCU has started to fight back. It has called a national week of action, and supported local branches taking strike action. It has also announced a ‘Stop the Cuts’ campaign, and organised a national rally in London on 10 May.
Socialist Students has been fighting for student unions to mobilise and organise transport, and is mobilising our members to show our solidarity with the UCU. An attack on one is an attack on all. The Labour government can and should fully fund higher education.
It was a Labour government 27 years ago that introduced tuition fees and, while most university students now aren’t old enough to remember free university education, we need to fight for a return of free education for all.
The rally has the potential to be used as a launchpad for future mass protests bringing together students and staff fighting for free, fully funded education.
Join Socialist Students on the UCU demo!
- Visit socialiststudents.org.uk/join
- or call 020 8988 8761
- or text your name and school, college or uni to 07515 921 699
