How to Have a Trade Dispute Over Funding In Higher Education

​A cross-branch UCU online meeting in support of a trade dispute with the Secretary of State for Education over the current funding model.

​Supported by: Queen Mary UCU, Goldsmiths UCU, Kingston UCU, Essex UCU, UAL UCU, Durham UCU, KCL UCU, Liverpool UCU, Oxford UCU.

​Higher education is in crisis. Redundancies are announced every week, with 99 universities laying off staff across the UK. At least 10,000 jobs have already been lost. Changes in student numbers have been a key driver of the current crisis. Universities have reorganised to compete with each other over attracting more students, especially from overseas. Managers have made decisions based on a fantasy of permanent growth, with few preparing for the prospect that numbers may plateau - or even decline. Meanwhile, money is wasted on mismanagement, new buildings, and VC vanity projects. The sector is increasingly casualised, and university leaders have abdicated their responsibility to defend the value of research and disciplinary specialisms. A sector funded by student debt is not working.

The funding model for higher education is determined by the Secretary of State, via the Office for Students. So if we want a different funding model, we need to take our concerns to the Secretary of State for Education. We want to open an industrial dispute with the person who decides how universities are funded.

A national dispute over funding is our best chance to collectively address our current crisis. A better funding model would make the jobs of professional services staff, estates and facilities staff, librarians and lab technicians more secure. It would also free the next generation of students from the burden of debt. At the moment, all of our jobs are paid for by the loans our students take on. We don’t want to live off their futures.

The current funding model funnels the debts students take on into the private sector, through rent, capital investment projects, and the inflated salaries of vice chancellors. But universities are a public resource that could – and should – be used for the public good.

So what does this mean from here?

* Read and share The Strategy for HE in Crisis document:
* Organise meetings with your branch and other campus unions to discuss a national campaign
* Submit the motion to your branch
* Write or contribute to further strategy discussions.