Media digest: 16 October 2015

English class cuts protest in Westminster

Around 600 lecturers and staff headed to Westminster on Wednesday to lobby their MP over cuts to English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) courses and job losses. Funding for a £45m programme of English courses, run with Jobcentre Plus, was cut in July.

Writing for Politics.co.uk before the lobby, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, highlighted the inconsistency of the government demanding immigrants speak English, while taking away the resources for them to be able to learn to do so.

The TES spoke to a number of the lobbyists who set out the damage the cuts would do. FE Week drew attention to the varied nature of speakers inside Westminster at the event, including a number of Esol students.

Bizarre week at Open University starts with protest merry-go-round and ends withstrike ballot and a rejection of job loss plans

UCU members at The Open University were banned from lobbying members of their Senate this week. The institution limited numbers allowed to lobby senate members to 10 at a time, which led to farcical scenes where members were queuing up to take it in turns to have a go on the "protest merry-go-round".

Despite the university's efforts to clamp down on dissent, on Wednesday the Senate rejected plans to axe seven regional centres and 502 jobs. The academic body said the plans were "very high risk" and failed to "support the academic mission of the university". UCU branch president, Pauline Collins, told the BBC that she hoped the university would now see sense and work with the union to find a better solution for staff, students and the future of the university.

Yesterday UCU launched a strike ballot of OU members. Times Higher Education highlighted UCU's concerns about the university's pledge to relocate people when staff in Gateshead would be left with a five-hour round trip of 250 miles to commute to their nearest centre in Edinburgh. It also mentioned a petition opposing the closures has now received over 4,600 signatures. You can sign the petition here.

Also this week, Bassetlaw MP John Mann tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons that opposes the closure of the regional centres.

British aid to private schools in developing countries could violate human rights

British aid to private schools in developing countries could violate human rights, warned UCU yesterday. The union is backing an international campaign which is concerned that British government support for the growth of private schools across Africa and south Asia is limiting opportunities for the poorest children.

Speaking to the TES, Sally Hunt said: 'UCU backs this campaign because we believe it is in no way justifiable to spend Britain's aid budget lining the pockets of multinational companies. These schools are not accessible to the poorest people or to certain groups such as girls, and they do not guarantee high-quality education.'