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Cuts & Consequeces. Unions. Cities/Groups. Campaigns. Episode 579 — RT Keiser Report. Association of School & College Leaders. 2012: a ‘Big Bang’ in higher education? This year will be a watershed in the transformation of universities from communities of scholars to cheap degree shops competing for ‘customers’ - unless concerted and localised resistance can prevent it.

2012: a ‘Big Bang’ in higher education?

Two recent news stories have confirmed the forces gathered behind the senior partners in the Coalition government. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism have set out the financial backing received by the Conservative Party from the City, while a BBC report has shown the extent to which David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, has been courting US-based educational conglomerates with a view to facilitating their entry into the UK market. Universities Minister David Willetts Contributions from the financial sector accounted for half of the £12.2million donated to Conservative Central Office, with hedge funds and financiers providing £2.69million. 'Alternative' higher education providers Government as private finance broker Universities as cheap degree shops A.

Resources.. Books: Ondertussen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk « ANS online. Ondertussen in: het Verenigd Koninkrijk « ANS online. "I melt the glass with my forehead" Gisteren? Bull Shit. Why March? Thousands of lecturers to strike over changes to pensions and pay. Lecturers from 47 universities in England would go on strike to protest against changes to superannuation scheme.

Thousands of lecturers to strike over changes to pensions and pay

Photograph: Swns/Masons/HEMedia Lecturers at a third of English universities will go on strike over changes to their pensions on Tuesday. Thousands of academics at 47 universities and higher education colleges will form picket lines to protest against changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension fund. THE REAL SOCIAL NETWORK. Prof. Richard Drayton on 'Economic Lies & Cuts' (1/4) Perhaps we should scream. Before it's too late - Comment - TES Connect. Comment:4.5 average rating | Comments (3)Last Updated:13 March, 2011Section:Comment In one of his most vicious and disturbing works, poet Philip Larkin looks through terror-stricken eyes at "The Old Fools" - those infirm and demented elderly relatives sitting in institutional high-backed chairs, reeking of urine, mouths lolling open, and undergoing a "whole hideous inverted childhood".

Perhaps we should scream. Before it's too late - Comment - TES Connect

Needless to say, it is a picture of utter degradation. This, the poet suggests, is where we are all heading - to some ghastly final staging-post before extinction. Larkin asks a question of The Old Fools which keeps drifting through my mind as I watch the current educational juggernaut hurtle madly onwards: "Why aren't they screaming? " There they sit, he says, death looming over them. Schools to make up to a fifth of staff redundant, headteachers warn. Schools are preparing to make up to a fifth of their staff redundant in anticipation of huge budget cuts, it has emerged.

Schools to make up to a fifth of staff redundant, headteachers warn

The number of senior teachers seeking advice on how to dismiss colleagues – and keep their own jobs – has hit a peak last seen in the late 1990s, a headteachers' association has warned. Jessica Shepherd (jessshepherd1) University Alliance. University Alliance (UniAlliance) Fees 'like a bit of extra income tax' Hundreds of Oxbridge dons demand inquiry into tuition fees - Education News, Education. They say universities are being forced to "fly blind" over plans to increase fees because a White Paper outlining how the new system will work is being delayed until later in the year.

Hundreds of Oxbridge dons demand inquiry into tuition fees - Education News, Education

"It is because this detail has yet to be decided that universities are having to plan in the dark," said Professor Peter de Bola, of King's College, Cambridge, one of those behind the protest. In a strongly worded open letter to Business Secretary Vince Cable and Universities minister David Willetts, the academics call for the establishment of a public commission of inquiry into the plans.

The authors argue: "We note with dismay and alarm that universities are being forced to take major decisions, with unknown consequences, to a breakneck timetable. Spending Review. Browne Review. The Browne Review or Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance[1] was a review to consider the future direction of higher education funding in England.

Browne Review

It was launched on 9 November 2009 and published its findings on 12 October 2010. It was chaired by Lord Browne of Madingley, the former chief executive of BP.[2] It recommended wide-ranging changes to the system of university funding, including removing the cap on the level of fees that universities can charge, and increasing the income level at which graduates must begin to pay back their loans to £21,000.[3] Scope[edit] The Browne Review made its first call for evidence in December 2009.

Times Higher Education reported that the review's themes were "participation rates, the quality of the higher education system and affordability for students and the state".[8] Background Research[edit] Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance » Members’ biographies. Guardian: Once, higher education was public good Editorial. The law of unintended consequences has ruined many an ambitious minister's career.

guardian: Once, higher education was public good Editorial

Yesterday Exeter University, highly successful and with admission requirements to match, but not one of the "prestigious" Russell Group, announced it is intending to charge the maximum fees of £9,000 from 2012. It seems that, far from being the exception, it will be the rule that universities aspiring to world ranking will want to charge the top whack – a problem that neither the business secretary, Vince Cable, nor the universities minister, David Willetts, had apparently anticipated. That means the Treasury, which had assumed that fees would settle at around the £7,500 mark, is facing a much larger bill for student loans than it had calculated.

Teacher suspended over claim she told school pupils to join student protests. Teachers and students in central London to protest against an increase in university tuition fees, in December.

Teacher suspended over claim she told school pupils to join student protests

Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA A teacher has been suspended after a parent complained that she had encouraged pupils to miss school to join the recent demonstrations against education cuts and tuition fee rises. The Marketisation of Higher Education: The Student as Consumer. And over 2 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .

The Marketisation of Higher Education: The Student as Consumer

Learn more. Students plan more protests over tuition fees and cuts. Students are preparing to occupy university buildings and hold more protests against increased tuition fees and cuts to higher education early in the new year, it emergedtonight.

Students plan more protests over tuition fees and cuts

They are planning major demonstrations and occupations to convince vice-chancellors not to raise fees to the new maximum of £9,000, and instead to nearer £6,000 a year. Vice-chancellors must decide by late February how much to charge students who will be starting their degrees in the autumn of next year so that they can print their universities' prospectuses in time. The protests and sit-ins, which are likely to cluster around London universities, are expected to gain momentum when the Lords debates the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance (EMA) on 12 January. The EMA is a weekly allowance of up to £30 designed to help the poorest teenagers stay in education after the age of 16. Other major protests will take place on 29 January and 19 February.

Two years' free tuition for poor students won't work, says universities lobby. Government plans for poorer students to get two years' university tuition free of charge could deter some institutions from accepting them, the umbrella group that represents university heads has said. Nicola Dandridge, the Universities UK chief executive, said the proposed scheme was unworkable as it would financially penalise the newer universities, which take more students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and could act as a "perverse disincentive" to improving access.

Just prior to parliament voting in favour of the contentious rise in tuition fees for students in England, ministers proposed they were looking to use a £150m fund to provide a year's free tuition for poorer students. Universities would match this to provide another year's study free of charge. Unions gear up as Liverpool Hope plans cuts. Unions are warning of possible strike action after Liverpool Hope University announced plans to cut about 10 per cent of all jobs, with the institution citing public funding cuts to non-science subjects and teacher training.

Liverpool Hope last week submitted formal notification of plans to cut up to 110 staff, covering 60 academic and 50 non-academic posts. It has said that it cannot rule out compulsory redundancies. The university, which is heavily balanced towards arts, humanities and social science subjects, expects to lose about 95 per cent of its public funding for undergraduate degrees in the wake of the Browne Review and the government's Comprehensive Spending Review.

It is also a major centre for teacher training, which the government wants to shift away from universities and into schools. Johann Hari: Your right to protest is under threat - Johann Hari, Commentators. Here’s one example of the intimidation of peaceful protest by the young that is happening all over Britain. Nicky Wishart is a 12-year-old self-described “maths geek” who lives in the heart of David Cameron’s constituency. He was gutted when he found out his youth club was being shut down as part of the cuts: there’s nowhere else to hang out in his village. He was particularly outraged when he discovered online that Cameron had said, before the election, that he was “committed” to keeping youth clubs open. Check Out Photos Of The Insane Student Riots Happening In London. Studentenprotest in Londen - Foto. Brits studentenprotest tevergeefs.

Kettle tactics risk Hillsborough-style tragedy – doctor. A senior doctor has warned that police risk repeating a Hillsborough-type tragedy if they continue with tactics deployed during the recent tuition fee protests. The anaesthetist from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who gave medical assistance to the protesters, said that officers forced demonstrators into such a tight "kettle" on Westminster Bridge that they were in danger of being seriously crushed or pushed into the freezing River Thames. The 34-year-old doctor, who set up a field hospital in Parliament Square, said that people on the bridge suffered respiratory problems, chest pains and the symptoms of severe crushing.

Gehandicapte student pwnd pliesie. BBC Jody McIntyre interview. Jody McIntyre Poorly Treated by Police (from 1.25) WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE. Jody McIntyre (jodymcintyre) ‘Supervision’ is not enough; the IPCC must handle this investigation themselves. One man's journey on the path to revolution… Why no mention of kettling disabled protesters? Last week, a group of people gathered in London's Triton Square to protest against the actions of Atos Origin, the company contracted by the government to deal with the administration of disability benefits.

Atos have so far carried out this task in a way that has led to many disabled people losing benefits they desperately need. Disabled people, and organisations such as Disabled People Against Cuts, were joined by members of anti-poverty groups such as London Coalition Against Poverty. Yet the mainstream press completely failed to cover the event. Many disabled people are disappointed by this – one person even said they had emailed the BBC to ask why, but had not yet received any response.

Disabled people following the event on Twitter were shocked when a member of Disabled People Against Cuts asked their followers to spread the word that protesters were being kettled. ‪Jody McIntyre's Bars For Change - Episode 1 - WHO POLICES THE POLICE?‬‏ Postmodernism in the Streets: the tactics of protest are changing. Three things were revealed by the recent wave of nationwide student protest. Firstly, the demonstrations represent a new political mood, that can manifest itself in excess and formless anger.

NOS Headlines - Cel voor brandblussergooier - Nieuws. Students eye up foreign universities. Student protesters interrupt Jeremy Hunt. University places to be cut by 10,000 by 2012, minister reveals. The number of places on degree courses in England will be cut by 10,000 by 2012, according to a government letter that outlines future funding cuts to higher education. Jeevanvasagar (jeevanvasagar) Testimony London protests: 'I don’t recognise my country' It was a sur­real tableau. On the dawn of 10 De­cem­ber 2010 the ma­jes­tic houses of par­lia­ment in Lon­don over­looked an eerie land­scape of man­gled bar­ri­ers, burnt-up plac­ards, and smashed glass.

This was Par­lia­ment Square, the focal point for an ill-con­trolled protest march over cuts and aus­ter­ity mea­sures that had spilled over into ri­ot­ing and vi­o­lence. It was the worst civil un­rest to be seen in Britain in a gen­er­a­tion. Student Protest News. Jonathan Dodds (jdodds) Higher Education Funding Council for England. HEFCE (HEFCE) LSE plans Libya scholarship fund with Gaddafi donation. The London School of Economics's governing body was in talks on Tuesday night on how to defuse a growing row over a £300,000 donation from a charitable foundation run by Muammar Gaddafi's son.

The university, which has spent half the money it received from Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, is looking at setting up a £300,000 scholarship fund for Libyan students. The donation was intended to finance a North Africa research programme at the elite institution. LSE head quits over Gaddafi scandal. A deepening row over the London School of Economics and its dealings with the Gaddafi regime has claimed the career of the university's director. LSE director resigns. Sir Howard Davies has resigned as director of the London School of Economics, and the school’s governing council has launched an independent inquiry into its relationship with Libya and with Saif Gaddafi.

Britse Universiteitsbestuurder Weg Om Khadaffi. Institutions Scramble to Check on Libya Ties. Memorandum to the London School of Economics Council warning it not to accept a grant from the Qaddafi Foundation. Should universities take donations from tyrants? Two more UK universities linked to Libya regime. Indymedia: Saif Gaddafi's london mansion occupied. Monitor > Home. Monitor Group. Private Eye: Gaddafi jnr. & MI6.

Massaal plagiaat op universiteiten. Cuts in the number of international students spell disaster. Universities hit out at visa plans for foreign students. Russell Group: Home. Russell Group (RussellGroup) Russell Group: News - 2010 - Russell Group comment on tuition fee vote. Make students pay back more, Russell Group urges. Dr Wendy Piatt (Director General, The Russell Group) on BBC World News Today 9 Dec 2010. Where does coalition stand on university funding? Glasgow Uni Occupied. But Sir, it's our politics practical - Features - TES Connect. Tuition fees. Video: Student fees protest: 'This fight is not over' What next for academics who are made redundant? Defeated by violence and silence.

University lecturers cut time allowed to students. Profs Shut Up Over Education Cuts. The Tab (Cambridge) Political Protest Calls For More Than Just Silence. Fight Back! A reader on the winter of protest. Tuition fees 'to soar despite warnings' BBC: Exeter students face £9,000 tuition fees. ‘Dip Britse universiteiten niet zo diep als gevreesd’ Nicola Dandridge, Universities UK: Dip not as great as feared.

Pension down the drain

UK student newspapers (in media res) Student protest has been quietly sweeping the nation. Now, it's getting louder. We need a student strike: NCAFC call out. A return to student militancy in the UK?