University of Bath UCU

The trade union for academic, academic-related and professional services staff

Higher Education and Research Bill – contact your MP before 19 July

Posted on July 15, 2016 by UCUSec

The Government is rushing the HE Bill through to its Second Reading in the House of Commons.

The Second Reading has been called, at very short notice, for　Tuesday 19 July.

The decision to rush this Bill through its Parliamentary stages is despite the current political turmoil created by Brexit, and the economic uncertainty facing the HE sector as a whole. Our analysis is that the HE Bill will compound, rather than solve the Brexit problems facing universities.

Urgent action: Write to your MP

Write to your MP to oppose the Bill

Notes for lobbying your MP

Political risks of the Higher Education and Research Bill

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Big cuts to HE budgets

Posted on June 10, 2015 by UCUSec

The British Universities Directors of Finance notes this week:

“The Treasury Announcement last week confirmed what many in the sector had suspected – that in England BIS has to find £450million in efficiency savings from its annual budget. It is not yet known how the savings will be found, but an article in the Times Higher suggests HEFCE could claw back some of the £4billion already allocated for 2015-16. It adds that “If the £450 million cut were to fall squarely on Hefce’s allocation to universities, it would be equivalent to roughly one-third of all teaching grants for 2015-16 (a total allocation of £1.4 billion) or a third of research funding (£1.56 billion allocation).”

The announcement comes during a week when both the OECD and the IMF expressed concern that the government was implementing too much austerity, and that it should reduce the scale and speed of the cuts.”