Sunday 1 February 2009

500 jobs to go at London Met?


More good coverage, this time from Mel MacDonald, of 'Socialist Appeal':

The newest University in London, London Metropolitan, is in trouble. Earlier this week, a crowd of over 100 disgruntled teachers, students and staff gathered outside the Holloway campus to protest against cuts of up to 500 jobs. It seems the cuts are the result of bad book keeping by management that led to years of over-reporting of student completion rates to the Met's funding body HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England). Now HEFCE is demanding a repayment of £38 billion and, as usual, the tops intend to produce the bulk of it in the form of staff cuts.

Protesters held placards with messages like 'Roper, The £276K Man', referring to the pay of the school's Vice Chancellor, Brian Roper. And, 'Sack Roper and save the Met!' and 'Why should we suffer?'

Megaphone in hand, Mark Campbell, from the coordinating committee of London Met UCU (University and College Union) spoke to the crowd. Pointing to the upper floors where a closed meeting of senior management was taking place he yelled "Get your act together! If you can't get your act together then get out! If you do get your act together, then act with us. Act for us. Act in the name of London and the University." The crowd cheered when he demanded that Londoners deserved education that they could be proud of.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.socialist.net/500-jobs-go-london-met.htm

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