In the news this week: 17 July 2015

UCU dismisses government's trade union reforms as "blatant attack on workers' rights"

UCU said the government's plans to raise turnout thresholds for strike ballots and ban more than seven people on a picket line would do nothing to improve workers' rights and exposed the government's plans as an attack on working people.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The Conservatives have made a considerable effort to portray themselves as the party on the side of working people. However, reducing the few rights that workers still retain inside an already tight legal framework on industrial action will do nothing to help working people or their employers. Demanding unions secure the kind of results that MPs couldn't, and police commissioners daren't even dream of, expose these regressive plans as a blatant attack on workers' rights.'

She told Times Higher Education that if the government was serious about increasing democracy in union ballots it would allow things such as electronic and workplace voting. Not impose minimum turnout levels and victory margins that were not applied in the general election or the Scottish referendum.

UCU's plans to fund university through higher business rates sparks debate in Labour party

Labour leadership hopefully Jeremy Corbyn said this week that he would scrap university fees and cover the cost through a rise in corporation tax. UCU first devised covering the cost of fees with an increase in corporation tax back in 2009.

Sally Hunt told the Independent that while students have seen fees rocket and the state still provides support, it is only fair that the other main beneficiary of higher education - business - finally pays its fair share. We now have the lowest corporation tax in the G20 and Sally said that increasing it in line with other countries, and ring-fencing the money for universities, would be the fairest way to ensure business pays its way.

Government figures show more needs to be done to help poorer students into university

New government figures published yesterday showed that less than a quarter (23%) of pupils at state schools and colleges had progressed to one of the most selective universities, compared to almost two-thirds (63%) from independent schools. The figures also showed that the gap between state and independent progression rates to the most selective institutions has widened in recent years.

UCU said that no pupil should think that some universities or higher education is not for them. However we warned that the government's decision to axe student grants and allow fees to rise would do nothing to bolster the efforts of staff to try and encourage some groups of students to apply to university.

Those figures came a day before the body that regulates access to higher education - OFFA - released its access agreements for the next academic year, which set out what institutions must do to try and improve the chances of students from the poorest backgrounds excelling at university or college. UCU said there was still much more to be done. Writing in the Telegraph, Sally Hunt said the figures demonstrated that progress in widening access and participation in higher education had been slow and called for an overall of the student application process.

Universities will be forced to reveal extent of individual gender pay gaps

Women in university leadership are paid up to 11.4 per cent less than men in equivalent jobs, revealed a study commissioned as part of last year's pay talks and reported in Thursday's Times Higher Education. Female vice-chancellors and principals earn 5.4 per cent less on average than male peers, while the pay gap rises to 10 per cent when deputy and pro vice-chancellors, registrars and chief operating officers are considered, says the joint report by employers and trade unions in higher education, published on 16 July.

The news comes just days after the Prime Minister said he plans to force large firms to disclose data on the gender pay gap among staff, which would force individual universities to reveal their pay gaps.

Colleges need support to meet technical education ambitions

Comprehensive reform of the way technical and professional qualifications are accredited and funded is needed to boost the country's productivity, according to a report released by the Higher Education Policy Institute on Thursday.

However, UCU said that unless the government looks again at devastating cuts of up to 24% then colleges will struggle to deliver the skills the country needs. Sally Hunt told the Times Educational Supplement that with appropriate funding, colleges would be "ideally placed" to create a system of post-school technical qualifications.