UCU says funding cuts would make a mockery of PM's promise to protect education

The cuts contrast with Tuesday's commitment to education from the prime minister in a speech on 'education for the new global age' when he said: 'The downturn is no time to slow down our investment in education but rather to build more vigorously for the future. Under this government, education will not become a victim of the recession, but rather the focus of our path to recovery and long-term growth.'
 
UCU has warned that the higher education sector already faces a 'jobs crisis' with 100 institutions having announced they will be axing staff. The union said today that any further cuts to budgets would only exacerbate the problem and seriously undermine any efforts to use education as a driver for recovery. The Times this morning reported an unnamed vice-chancellor warning of 550 jobs to go at just two institutions.
 
The union reiterated its call to university employers to sign up to a national agreement to protect jobs, which staff and students have already signed up to. UCU is currently in dispute with university employers over their refusal to sit down and thrash out such an agreement. The union's members are being balloted for industrial action with the result expected on Friday 22 May.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Less than 48 hours ago the prime minister categorically stated that education will not become a victim of the recession, but rhetoric alone cannot ensure that we continue to deliver the high quality of education required to pull us out of these difficult times. The government needs a proper strategy for investment in education, not one where it gives with one hand and takes away with the other.
 
'Put simply, cuts will be a disaster for education and any government plans to use education as a driver for recovery. We have no chance of pulling ourselves out of recession if jobs in universities and colleges are going to be lost and cash squeezed from vital resources. It is now vital that universities heed the calls from staff and students to sit down and negotiate concrete proposals to protect jobs in the sector.'

• The prime minister's full speech from Tuesday
• The Times: Thousands of jobs to go at universities as budgets slashed by £150m