This letter is re-pasted from Mark Campbell’s blog.
Dear colleagues,
Friday 13th confirmed the nightmare vision that the Con-Dems, and their allies in university management, plan for the future of higher education.
London Metropolitan University, having long been the testbed for Government policy – via a succession of dictatorial vice-chancellors and unaccountable Governors, simultaneously announced the following:
1) the intention to tender the ‘process re-engineering’ of its entire in-house administrative services to private companies on the basis that those services are to be reconstituted as so-called ‘shared services’ – thus threatening the jobs and conditions of most, if not all, London Met’s administrative grade staff;
2) the intention to make redundant 229 staff posts across the university’s seven academic faculties. 201 of those posts amongst academic grade staff. The announcement entailed the emailing of ALL faculty staff informing them that they were ‘at risk of redundancy’. The primary rational given for such a huge job cull being ‘the delivery of the new undergraduate and postgraduate portfolio in 2012/13′. This follows the cutting of some 70% of UG courses and projected PG course cuts following the anticipated outcome of the post-graduate and research review due this March.
In parallel with these attacks, and no doubt a concomitant of, we believe London Met management are currently in talks with a number of private education institutions in regard to forming ‘strategic partnerships’.
Both Unison and UCU will be holding emergency all members meeting over the next week or so to detail the situation and discuss our collective response. However, it is a certainty we will fight these attacks on our members jobs and conditions, as we always have, with resolute and substantial industrial action as and when required. We trust we will continue to have your forthright solidarity in such action and in our fight to save our university.
Please send messages of support to:
m.campbell@londonmet.ac.uk (UCU)
m.watson@londonmet.ac.uk (Unison)
In solidarity,
Mark Campbell
London Metropolitan University UCU (Chair)
UCU National Executive Committee
