UCU president's keynote speech will condemn inequality in education

Giving the keynote address at the union's annual congress in Brighton, Taylor will highlight how England is now the most expensive country in which to study for a degree at a public university and how students from the wealthiest backgrounds are far more likely to attend university.

Addressing the 400 delegates, Taylor will speak of the devastating effect cuts to further and higher education have had on staff. She will condemn job losses that have led to increased workloads for the staff who remain, the increase in casual contracts and decline in rights for many positions. She will also point out that lecturers now top the leaderboard of professions with the greatest levels of stress.

Taylor will conclude her address by saying that education must be at the centre of the country's social and economic renewal.

UCU president, Kathy Taylor will say: 'We have faced an unprecedented onslaught on a multitude of fronts as the government has attempted to undermine publicly-funded and accountable education, reducing education to a commodity, based not on ability, but an ability to pay.

'The decimation of funding for both further and higher education, the axing of the education maintenance allowance, the introduction of fees for people aged 24 and over who wish to study at college and £9,000 a year university fees have resulted in serious damage to our profession.

'We have seen cuts in colleges and universities. England is now the most expensive place in the world to study for a degree at a public university. Students from the richest 20% are 10 times more likely than those from the poorest 20% to go to university. There is a lost generation of a million of our young people who are not in education, employment or training.

'Thousands of jobs have been lost and those still in work have faced massive attacks on their terms and conditions. We have seen an appalling increase in casualisation, massive hikes in workloads, a growing culture of aggression and macho management and now, shamefully, we are top of the leaderboard of professions when it comes to work-related stress.

'I believe that education must be at the centre of our social and economic renewal. We have to convince this government that investment in education benefits not only the individual but society, contributes to economic recovery and growth, and saves money in terms of the health and well-being of its citizens.'

A copy of the full speech is available from the press office.