Education in the UK

The government’s attempt to push ahead with its state-funded but privately run school academies programme continues despite growing evidence of their lack of educational value, and in the face of popular opposition.

On February 5, the Kilburn Times reported that school staff had voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action if a planned enforcement of nine teaching redundancies took place at the Crest Boys’ Academy in Neasden, London, an effort by the school to plug a £1.2 million funding gap resulting from a drop in pupil numbers.

The Edutrust Academies Charitable Trust (EACT), which is in charge of Crest Boys’ Academy, blamed the academy’s predecessor, John Kelly Boys, for the financial crisis. But Brent Council insists that both Crest Boys and Girls Academies were launched without inheriting any debts.

Universities in the UK have begun to slash staff and new student numbers, wind up courses and even close whole campuses as the impact of government cuts takes hold.

The Guardian this week ran a report based on interviews with vice-chancellors and senior staff at 25 universities affected by budget cuts totalling nearly £1 billion. For the upcoming academic year alone, the spending reductions, announced last week by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, is £449 million. This represents a cut in university budgets of more than five percent.

With universities accounting for about £15 billion of public spending, the announced cuts will slash funding by nearly 6.7 percent. However, this is only the first instalment, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies warning that eventual cuts could total £2.5 billion.

Over 200,000 young people are to be denied a place at English universities in the next academic year due to huge funding cuts imposed by the Labour Party government.

Under conditions in which official unemployment among young people stands at nearly 1 million, demand for university places has increased substantially in the last year. Seven applications are expected for every one place at the 20 leading Russell Group universities. At least 200,000 and as many as 300,000 prospective students may be denied a place at universities this year as a result of the cuts.

Steve Smith, vice chancellor of Exeter University and a representative of Universities UK, said the numbers being denied a university place are set to escalate. “Last year about 160,000 students who applied didn’t end up going to university. This year, we already know that there are about another 75,000 applying for university,” he said.

This article is being distributed at today’s national lobby of parliament to defend education and jobs, organised by the University College Union.

Following spending reductions in December totalling £398 million for 2010-11, it is estimated that total education cuts over the next three years in Britain will be around £900 million. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the cuts may reach £2.5 billion.