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Tue 28 Feb 2012
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Quality of higher education will drop, says union
Thu 18 Mar 2010
The University and College Union (UCU) has warned that the standard of higher education in England will decline if funding is reduced.
According to the body, spending cuts in the sector could lead to thousands of jobs being lost.
This, it said, would mean the remaining employees would have more students to teach and less time in which to teach them.
As a result, the UCU believes the quality of university education will decline significantly.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the union, said anyone who thinks the forthcoming spending cuts will not impact "massively" on the standard of higher education is "living in a dream world".
Ms Hunt added that funding cuts would also lead to thousands of students being denied access to university and building projects being put on hold.
Meanwhile, Sir Alan Langlands of the Higher Education Funding Council for England has acknowledged that coping with financial constraints will not be easy.
However, he said the organisation is hopeful that universities and colleges will continue to meet the needs of students and the wider community as they have done in the past.
Stephen Hart, a solicitor at Winckworth Sherwood Solicitors, commented: "Universities face hard choices and unsettled times.
"Not all of those choices have to be negative.
"Maximising returns from estates - including rationalising properties - and reinforcing the need for students to complete their courses may limit some cuts.
"However, courts and governing bodies are obliged to run their institution's finances on a sound basis and therefore it is likely that redundancies will follow.
"HR teams will have to follow proper procedures carefully in order to avoid tribunal claims and industrial action."
