universities
News and articles about work, policy and workers' and students' struggles in education around the world.
Queens University pushing for 150 redundancies
News emerged today of plans by Queens University in Belfast to make 150 members of academic staff redundant.
Just over a year after Queens University attempted to pursue compulsory redundancies for the first time in its history, plans are afoot to axe 150 academic jobs at the university.
The recession: what it means for education
This article summarises some of the issues facing the education sector and how they are more acute in times of recession, and was the result of numerous discussions on Libcom. It first appeared in issue 1 of The Leveller.
The recession is everywhere we look, in this very paper there’s many articles reporting on, and discussing, the widespread and varied effects of the ‘economic downturn’ across all sectors.
University union suspends ballot over job security and pay
The University and College Union (UCU) has suspended its ballot for industrial action over pay and job security until autumn.
Following notification that 78 higher education (HE) employers intend to use anti-trade union laws against UCU, the union has announced that it is suspending the ballot for industrial action that had be due this month.
Zengakuren: Japan's Revolutionary Students
This is an excellent historical introduction to the period of Japanese student radicalism that began after the war in the wake of the increasingly ineffective strategies of the Japanese Communist Party and which culminated in massive social unrest and change around the Japanese school system and society in general.
Chapters:
1. Historical Background
2. Origins of Zengakuren
3. The Anti-Ampo Struggle
4. The University Problem
5. The University Struggles
6. Kakumaru - Portrait of an Ultra-Radical Group
7. The Future...?
Who's Who in Zengakuren and the Youth Movement in 1969
Download the PDF to read the book.
University bosses get massive pay rises despite 'tough times'
Unions are angry as university bosses received an average pay rise which vastly exceeds current pay offer to employees.
Unions have expressed distaste at the news that university senior managers (Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Deans, Registrar and Chief Operating Officer, and Support Directors) received a pay increase in 2008 of 5.5%. This comes after the University and College Employers Association (UCEA) this week offered higher education (HE) unions 0.3% pay rise this year.
Higher education chiefs refuse to secure workers' jobs in the sector.
University bosses have refused to secure higher education jobs after a meeting with unions.
In a meeting yesterday, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) made no offer to protect jobs across the sector.
French universities in revolt over education reforms
For more than 10 weeks now, French universities have been disrupted by strikes, mass meetings, demonstrations and occupations as a daily occurrence in an unheard-of wave of protest by university staff and students against President Nicolas Sarkozy's neoliberal reforms of higher education.
A dozen mass demonstrations with tens of thousands of people have been held, motorway tollbooths have been occupied and university council meetings invaded. Parallel university lectures, in streets, shopping centres or on trams have been used to help popularise the movement that shows no sign of stopping.
Students' union proposes tax on graduates
Despite protests from students against fees and rising economic pressures, the National Union of Students is proposing a tax on graduates.
Having already abandoned the call for abolition of tuition fees for higher education as 'unfeasible', the National Union of Students (NUS) has now suggested a 'tax' on graduates to 'generate income'. The proposed tax marks a shift from decades of opposition to charging for higher education.
University and college bosses plan job cuts in higher education
The University and Colleges Union has revealed that university and college bosses will not be making them any new pay offer and that many are seeking job cuts.
Following a meeting with Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) recently, the University and Colleges Union (UCU) and other trade unions were told that they would not be getting an initial pay offer and that jobs cuts could be expected across the higher education (HE) sector. Up to 100 HE institutions were making plans for collective redundancies
Domino of university occupations in Greece, in midst of turmoil
The decision of academic authorities to evict Dean's offices occupation in Thessaloniki leads to a domino of university administration occupations across Greece. At the same time protest marches paralyse Athens in the final run-up to the Thursday's general strike.
The decision of the Dean of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Manthos, to evict the occupation of the University administration headquarters by students and radicals who are demanding the immediate end of all university contracts with subcontracting cleaning companies in solidarity to K.
