THE DEMONSTRATION outside parliament on the day of the crucial vote on topup fees was addressed by Paul Mackney, the head of Nathe, the higher education lecturers' union leader.
He said that if the top-up fees go ahead, universities which attract students from working class backgrounds will be the real losers. He mentioned two in particular; the University of East London (UEL), and South Bank, in South London. Socialist Resistance reports on the impact this is already having at UEL.
UEL has a student population which is 65 percent non-white, and overwhelmingly working class. Under the proposed top-up fees scheme, less students would be likely to come to university here.
The university are planning to redesign the courses to make them less academic, involving less theoretical learning and less want to turn UEL into a vocational training college, adapted to the needs of big business.
The university authorities plan is to raise more money from vocational training bodies, rather than rely on central government funding for higher education. They also plan to raise £25 million in donations from big business, turning the university into a giant human superffarket for prospective meeting
employers. If this goes through, it will mean the privatisation of UEL. In the meantime, the university are trying to make El million worth of savings by cutting teaching hours. Graphic Design students were told in mid January LOBBY the UEL governors' Wednesday March 17th
vote to that the hours available for teaching would be cut by 50 percent, whilst across the whole School of Art, 660 hours of planned teaching cuts were being planned
in the coming semester.
But the college authorities are finding it difficult to drive this through. A group of students from Graphic Design and Fine Art met at the end of January to oppose the plans, and the university has backed down on the cut in teaching hours, at least for now.
This is a critical time for the university, and the last thing they need is any bad publicity which may upset their prospective friends in the City of London. There is a real mood to fight these cuts, and students are preparing themselves for protests, and posNO
first year the new 'art' degree would give just 60 hours of teaching time out of 150 hours.
The new management is trying to bribe students into accepting it by promising a new building on the Docklands site filled with high tech gadgets. On other courses they want to merge Social Sciences with Culture and Innovation.
None of this has been discussed with unions, the students union, the academic board, nor has it yet been passed by the board of governors.
There is a three month period before any of these plans are due to be ratified, meaning that opposition planned by students this semester can stop the marketisation of education.
For the managers of UEL the changes add up to just one word; business. Education is becoming more and more like a corporation, part of a wider attack on young people