UCU responds to appointment of new London Met vice-chancellor

A Westminster debate, called by Islington North MP, Jeremy Corbyn, takes place in the House of Commons on 20 May from 2.30-4pm to look at the LMU crisis, which has left as many as 800 staff at risk from redundancy.
 
The university has been hit by funding cuts and repayment demands totalling millions of pounds following inaccurate reporting of the number of students completing courses. Its funding was cut by £15million a year and a further £36.5million has to be repaid for previous years' over-funding. The university's response to the crisis was to announce plans to axe at least 550 jobs, which equates to 800 staff actually at risk (one quarter of the workforce).
 
On Thursday 7 May UCU members went on strike after the university said it was pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy scheme that that the union argued had no strategy behind it. The scheme was announced during talks designed to avoid redundancies and, UCU said, left the union with no option but to ballot members for industrial action. Students at the institution have also staged an occupation in support of their lecturers.
 
UCU has called for an independent public inquiry in to university's governance and finances and hopes that today's appointment, coupled with tomorrow's parliamentary debate, will lead to a change in the way the university is run.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said:'We hope the appointment of Alfred Morris will mark a sea change in direction for LMU. We are seeking a meeting with him as soon as possible to discuss the crisis in funding that has led to a quarter of staff being at risk of redundancy. However, we urgently need an independent inquiry to unearth exactly how the institution got into this mess in the first place.
 
'Tomorrow's Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons is a good opportunity to start getting to the bottom of the problem and will also highlight the damage that mass redundancies at a university that has been a pioneer of widening participation will do.'
 
London Met has over 34,000 students and is the largest university in the capital. It has a proven track record when it comes to widening participation and has been at the forefront of the government's strategy to open up university to more students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds.
 
London Metropolitan University – a pioneer for widening participation:

• 97.3% of LMU students come from state schools or colleges (31st highest in the UK)
• 42.9% come from lower social economic groups (26th highest in the UK)
• 51.9% of students at LMU are mature students (5th highest in the UK)
• there are 3,565 part-time students at LMU (18th highest in the UK).