Model Letter to MP (from student)

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Dear

I am a student at the London Metropolitan University. I am very worried by reports in the press.

The Guardian Newspaper reports that “A senior union official has described the financial crisis at London's largest university, where major mistakes in recording student drop-out rates have led to an overpayment of £56m in government funding, as "unprecedented in higher education". Up to 500 staff jobs at London Metropolitan University are now said to be at risk after its management proposed large-scale redundancies to balance the books.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/03/brian-roper

We have been told nothing by our university and in this vacuum rumours are rife. The latest news is that up to 800 members of staff may lose their jobs. We the students and our tutors have done nothing wrong. Yet we are presented with the suggestion that this, the largest university in London, may fall as a result of a dispute between the university’s management and Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).

This is wrong. Firstly we need to know the real truth of the situation and secondly we insist on the need for this matter to be resolved in such a way that it does not impact on students, tutors or their courses.

How is it possible that Hefce accepted these returns in the past without checking? Why were these errors (if there were any) not picked up by the University’s financial departments, their auditors or by Hefce themselves? Why is the government not rescuing the university if it has the means to pay billions of pounds to bail out private banks?

If errors have been made then the guilty parties should be punished, not the blameless students or our tutors.

I wish to protest at my own situation and that of “2,300 (full-time equivalent) staff and 34,000 students” (figures from the Guardian.) I seek reassurance that the position of my university and its staff is secure.
Yours faithfully
Signed .........................................
Address .........................................
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