Staff input vital to raising standards and quality at universities, says UCU

Responding to a new report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), entitled 'Teaching, quality and the student experience,' the union repeated its calls for more support to be given to external examiners and critcised the report for failing to deal with the crucial issue of university funding.
 
Commenting on the HEFCE report, UCU general secretary Sally Hunt, said: 'We are fortunate to have some the best educators in the world working at our universities and it is essential that they have a say in any changes to our higher education system. They experience life on the front line everyday and must play a central role.
 
'It is a unacceptable that external examiners, who are a vital to maintaining standards, are treated so poorly by institutions.  Unfortunately, the current financial and professional rewards remain unattractive and unless the forthcoming review of external examining recommends improved conditions we will continue to struggle to attract more examiners.
 
'I am very disappointed that the report has failed to address the issue of university funding. We can talk about improving quality until we are blue in the face but how can we hope to achieve this while job cuts are being made across the sector?  We have to abandon the notion that a world class university system can be run on the cheap.'