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UCU response to Policy Exchange education funding report

19 October 2015

UCU today welcomed Policy Exchange's findings that the further education sector needs better funding and it should be protected in the forthcoming spending review.

However, the union does not agree that the department for business, innovation and skills (BIS) should seek to protect it by raiding money from universities.

Commenting on the report, Higher, Further, Faster, More - Improving higher level professional and technical education, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said:

'What is happening in the further education sector is absolutely catastrophic and risks undermining our ability to deliver the skills this report and others identify as crucial for the future of our economy. However, we do not accept that the best way to achieve this is to raid cash from our world-leading universities.

'The question here is not which sector we choose to support, but how can we afford not to fully support both? We need a debate about the levels of public funding we should be investing in our future, not just considering ways to tweak how students manage ever increasing debts.'

Last updated: 10 December 2015

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