UCU responds to cuts in university teaching funding

The £65 million cut is the first part of government plans to make a £180 million pounds worth of 'efficiency savings' from higher education by 2010-2011. UCU today warned that the £65m will equate to the loss of a further 1,500 full time lecturing and support staff just days after the union revealed university staffing cuts affecting 100,000 students.

A report by UCU this month shows that nearly 6,000 job cuts are being threatened across higher and further education which would affect provision for over 100,000 students.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt, said: 'This £65 million is just the first wave of new cuts that we are likely to see in higher education. What kind of message does this send out to future generations of educators? It seems absurd that in a week when the government has done so much soul searching over widening participation that it is putting up new barriers for people wishing to study.

'Understanding the cost of education is very different to knowing its value. We know the power education has to transform lives, however, we cannot just cram more students into our universities at a time when the staff required to teach and nurture them are being cut. This news will come as a hammer blow to staff and students and make it much harder to attract students from poorer and non-traditional backgrounds.

'Students need to be able to study locally but the sad reality is that there are areas of the country where certain subjects are not available any more due to cuts and closures by universities. Without investment in education the recession will be longer and will blight more lives yet this government continues to make cuts.'