London Met protests over jobs cull

Members of the UCU will lobby London Met's board of governors as they meet for crunch talks at the university's Moorgate building (see directions below).

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).

UCU today repeated its calls for a full independent public inquiry in to the financial mess at London's biggest university. Despite serious accusations from MPs of collusion between London Metropolitan University (LMU) and the funding body (HEFCE), the government last month reversed its decision to hold an independent inquiry.

On Thursday 7 May UCU members went on strike after the university said it was pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy scheme that the union argued had no strategy behind it. Students at the institution have also staged an occupation in support of their lecturers.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'LMU staff and students are rightly concerned about how the severe planned redundancies will impact on their education and for the future of their institution. It's time the management faced up to their errors and stopped punishing the staff for their mistakes.

'The government must not shirk its responsibility either. We need a fully independent public inquiry. Any inquiry which does not examine closely the full failings at LMU will be a wasted opportunity to provide a brighter future for its beleaguered staff and students. We must have a transparent review in which all stakeholders are fully involved and we urge LMU to halt its redundancies plans to allow that inquiry to take place. MPs have made serious allegations and quite rightly demanded a full inquiry. If LMU has nothing to hide then why is the inquiry not happening already?'

LMU 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).

Directions to lobby