Call to protect university jobs

The UCU says lecturers have an important role in the recession

Union leaders have urged the government to do more to protect jobs in universities and colleges.

The University and College Union (UCU) said universities and colleges had a valuable part to play in helping people develop skills in the recession.

But it said staff in the further and higher education sectors still faced the possibility of losing their jobs.

The government said spending in these sectors was rising, but said efficiency savings were necessary in the downturn.

In April the UCU rejected a 0.3% pay offer from employers as "derisory".

The union planned to hold a ballot for industrial action over proposed job cuts, but was forced to postpone it last week because of a "software problem".

But university employers said 78 of the 153 universities that had received ballot papers had complained about inaccurate information contained in them.

Pay talks between the UCU and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) have resumed, but the UCU has said it will ballot in the autumn term if an agreement is not reached.

Responsibility of re-skilling

Speaking at the UCU's annual conference in Bournemouth, president Sasha Callaghan said: "The government has charged college and university staff with the huge responsibility of re-skilling the country out of recession, yet we are facing huge threats of compulsory redundancies and departmental closures in our universities and colleges.

"We must not condemn people to a life of unemployment, and it is wrong that lecturers and staff find themselves on the job queue.

"They are the ones who will make the difference in these difficult times and they have a vital role to play."

A spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said: "Far from cutting funding for higher and further education, the budget confirmed further rises in spending across both sectors for next year, reflecting the vital role they are playing in helping people through the downturn.

"It is right, however, that when the nation is tightening its belt in a tough fiscal environment, we ask the HE and FE sectors to do the same where universities and colleges themselves recognise savings can be made.

"Job cuts are not our focus for efficiency savings which are aimed at protecting frontline services while ensuring best value for the taxpayer, bearing down further on bureaucracy, inefficiencies and administrative overheads."

Spending on universities would rise by 1.7% next year and spending on further education would rise by 4%, he added.