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University staff object to involvement in Academy Schools

27 October 2008

Staff at the universities of Brighton and Sussex are in restive mood about the involvement of their institutions in the proposed Falmer Academy.

While many are concerned about the effect of the proposal on local secondary education in the area, many more are concerned that they have not been consulted. Now UCU, and Unison, the support staff union, have organised a poll of staff to give them the opportunity to express that concern.

The issue came to light when the supporters of the Academy at Falmer made much of the support that the new school would be receiving from the two universities if the project went ahead. Staff became aware that they had not been consulted about such support yet were being involved in this controversial project as members of their University.

Tom Hickey, philosophy lecturer and chair of UCU at Brighton, explained: 'The university is proud to call itself a community of scholars and educationalists, yet it has allowed its name and reputation to be associated with this project without any consultation with members of the university community. That is a deficit of democracy and consultation that is deeply worrying.  Many staff at the University have deep reservations about the educational value of academies, and are concerned about their divisive social effects.  Yet none of us, even the education specialists, have been consulted.'

Academies were introduced in 2000 by the government as 'schools to make a difference in areas of disadvantage'. Academies are effectively owned by their 'sponsor' – a person or organisation invited to contribute up to £2m to the capital costs of building a new school. The rest of the money for these new buildings – around £28m in the Falmer case – will come from the taxpayer.

Because this money comes directly from the government, the local educational authority will have no role in running or overseeing the school, and education law, which guides other schools, will not apply to the academies. In effect the sponsor is in sole charge.

Academies are not required to teach the national curriculum but to provide a 'broad and balanced curriculum with a particular focus'. The sponsor gets to choose the school's specialist subject, and does not have to consult anyone about it.

The private sponsor of the proposed Falmer Academy is the entrepreneur Rod Aldridge, founder of the Capita group. Mr. Aldridge leads a partnership that includes City College, and the Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, which are hoping to relocate to land in Falmer, in whole or in part, in the near future.

Jim Guild, secretary of the UCU branch at the University of Sussex, said: 'Consultation is crucial. Staff may be hostile to the proposal or supportive of it but we will all be drawn into involvement if this goes ahead. This is, in part, about the privatization of education. How can our institutions support such a political position without asking for our views?'

The electronic poll that is being conducted by the two unions at Brighton and Sussex is stimulating much debate. It asks two questions of all staff - should staff have been consulted before the universities allowed their names to be linked to the Academy schools, and should the universities now withdraw their support?  The poll will remain open for the next week.

The poll has already had a dramatic effect. As a result of the debate it has been revealed that the board of governors at the University of Brighton has already expressed formal interest in a becoming the chief sponsor itself of two new Academy schools in Hastings, which would involve the closure of three existing schools.

Dr. Ian McDonald, a sports sociologist at Brighton, said: 'It is not unusual for staff not to be consulted here. We rarely are. So, this is a new experience for us all - even as the unofficial exercise that it is, and organised by the union. I think that we should have been consulted on this question. This is a political issue about the future of our children's education, and what kind of society we want to live in.'

Last updated: 14 December 2015

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