Yesterday I found out that I am not going to be made redundant from the University of Derby. The redundancy process has been organised in three rounds, like some kind of grim version of X Factor, with people gradually being whittled down on the basis of a number of questionable criteria. Yesterday round two took place and I was informed that I would still have a job.
This was a huge relief to me, but is very much tempered by the fact that many of my colleagues are still in the pool and moving into the sudden death third round. Along with colleagues from the union and the wider professoriate, I worked on an alternative plan for research at the University of Derby which I continue to think provides a much better way forward for the University than the current path that it is taking. It remains very unclear what the University is trying to achieve, and how the current redundancies will actually achieve anything, other than to sap everyone’s morale.
The problems that the University of Derby are facing are sadly far from unique. The funding model for higher education in England is broken and problems are likely to continue to intensify until the government addresses this funding model. Essentially the value of the fees that are paid to higher education has been in decline for over 15 years. As inflation has gone up, the costs of universities have skyrocketed while the income has declined. Mismanagement of international student visa issues by the government has accelerated this, as has Brexit, meaning that we are now in a crisis position. The UKHE Shrinking webpage is counting the consequences of these decisions for staff and student.
The government needs to see that this is a crisis and step in to address it. There is no way out via better management or reduced staffing. Ultimately the situation is unsustainable without a change in policy and funding. The longer the government leaves it the worse the situation will get and the chance of university closures and mergers will increase. If this happens on a large scale it will quickly overwhelm the capacity of the Office for Students to manage it and lead to complete chaos in higher education. Please contact your MP(see They Work for You) or Jacqui Smith the Minister in charge of this chaos. Oh, and join a trade union if you aren’t already in one, it has been invaluable over the last few weeks for us.
The last few weeks has been enormously stressful for me and my colleagues. One of the real joys has been all of the support that everyone in my life, across the careers sector, the higher education sector and beyond has been giving me. Thank you to everyone. We have published a version of the open letter with 645 signatures on it on the UCU Derby website. If you haven’t signed it yet, please do (you can sign it here). We still need the support of everyone to stop the remaining redundancies.
We live in troubling times. But, hopefully the crisis in higher education is one that can be dealt with. Surely more education is exactly what is needed in such times!