Sami Wannell - Welfare Officer

There have been more articles recently about what exactly these governmental funding cuts are going to mean for Higher Education Institutes like Warwick. In the Observer's words:

Universities across the country are preparing to axe thousands of teaching jobs, close campuses and ditch courses to cope with government funding cuts...

It is as dire as it sounds. Plans include:

• Using postgraduates rather than professors for teaching
• Delaying major building projects
• Entire campus closures. Buildings to be mothballed and students transferring to other sites (probably not going to affect Warwick)
• Scrapping of scholarships and bursary schemes
• Undersubscribed arts and humanities courses being dropped.
• Rise in student/lecturer ratios.

Peter Mandelson is accusing university management of "extreme language" and "gross exaggerations", but ballots for industrial action are due to be held or pending at a number of institutions e.g. at Leeds (a fellow Russell Group university), where the threat of compulsory redundancies has "driven professors and lecturers into impassioned union meetings".

This is against a backdrop of university places being in even higher demand than ever (and less spaces existing). Warwick are being a bit quiet about what the cuts could result in. Watch this space?

Over the past few years, the acronym HMO (standing for House in Multiple Occupation) has become a scarier and scarier word for students. First, a bit of background:

The article John Denham to tighten house rules in student enclaves (Sept 11th 2009, The Guardian) outlines the history of the government trying to use legislation (via Use Class Orders) to limit the amount of student properties in any given area. Under the banner of making "sustainable communities", all it will realistically end up doing is create student ghettos whilst still not solving the problems communities are facing – and this doesn't just affect students. Though a lot of HMOs are student properties, some also belong to immigrants or other groups forced to share houses due to economic constraints. A lot of the arguments against using Use Class Orders to control student population densities can be found in this article or this article.

The government did a consultation on HMOs (which many students unions and the NUS) submitted evidence for, and has just issued its response. John Healey, the Housing Minister, has announced new powers for local councils to manage the spread of HMOs. The NUS response summarises everything pretty well...

Yesterday the Government issued a response to its consultation on houses in multiple occupations (HMO’s) and possible planning responses, to which NUS and students ’ unions have given evidence and written submissions. The Housing Minister, John Healey, has announced new local planning powers to manage the spread of shared rented homes and to tackle pockets of unsafe and substandard accommodation run by bad landlords.

The Government proposes that new housing use for three or more unrelated people will in the future require landlords to obtain planning permission to ensure that the creation of balanced and sustainable communities with an appropriate housing mix. NUS has been assured that these proposals will not be used retrospectively, existing stock of HMOs will not be affected by the proposed changes in legislation.

HMO Quotas are something that NUS has fought long and hard against, maintaining that they will not solve the problems facing our communities like noise, litter, antisocial behaviour, car parking etc. We fail to see how these changes will address the concerns of community members, or how local authorities will roll these changes out.

...the Government does not require additional primary legislation to award these powers, limiting our opportunities to reverse this nationally...

NUS have already written and spoken with the Department for Communities and Local Government to ensure that new legislation does not raise rents, displace tenants and put huge burdens on local authorities. The Government’s response recognised the past failings of community planning, which led to expansions in student numbers and housing over a number of years without sufficient heed being paid to the problems this could create for students and their communities. Students have in the past too often been the victims of poor planning, the consequences of which have been to cause tensions in certain neighbourhoods, a lack of access to local services, and students paying over the odds for poor housing.

We also welcome the acknowledgement that unplanned expansion was in no way the responsibility of students and will be writing to the department to ensure that local authorities, universities and landlords all take responsibility at a local level for joined-up planning and licensing.

NUS and students’ union’s will work to ensure that student housing is available, affordable and of sufficient quality. We will also demand a duty on local authorities to consult directly with students' unions, recognising their role as integral members of the community.

It is clear that the problems of addressing future housing needs is best addressed with due attention to local circumstances...

..NUS welcomes the Government’s announcement to empower local communities to improve the quality of rented homes and to take forward a new National Landlords Register, something which we supported in our response to the Rugg review. We have made the case and will continue to argue that consent from Government to pass powers to local authorities should contain a strict duty to directly consult students’ unions in any new licensing schemes in order that concerns over the availability, affordability and quality of housing for students can be voiced. As integral members of their communities, it is vital that students and students’ unions continue to be a part of finding local solutions to local problems and are empowered to build upon the strong links that have been forged and developed at a local level.  

Great time to be a student? Still?

We've been seeing news about the scary amounts higher education budgets are going to be cut in the not-too-distant future. The Russell Group (a collection of research-intensive universities, which includes Warwick) has finally come up with a response:

Universities face meltdown – and all of Britain will suffer (Russell Group statement in The Guardian)

Such huge cuts in university budgets would have a devastating effect not only on students and staff, but also on Britain's international competitiveness, economy and ability to recover from recession. Research-intensive universities have been given some consolation; we certainly welcome the relative protection for research announced in December and the pronouncement that the needs of world-class institutions must be prioritised. But we are deeply concerned that cuts of this magnitude in overall funding will erode the sustainability of our research and affect even the most outstanding universities.

When Gordon Brown was asked if there was still money to spend on Labour priorities despite the public-­sector deficit, he replied: "Of course there is." Perhaps the PM should consider what his international counterparts regard as priorities. Nicolas Sarkozy has just announced an investment of €11bn in higher education in France, stating he wants "the best universities in the world". Germany pumped a total of €18bn into promoting world-class research alongside university education, while Barack Obama ploughed an additional $21bn into ­federal science spending.

Universities are not immune from this recession. But there seems to be a greater focus on cutting higher education funding than almost anything else. The health service, police and schools are all currently "protected", presumably due to their perceived importance at the ballot box. Not so, it seems, HE.

Top UK universities warn of damage from budget cuts (article on the statement on BBC News)

The Russell Group, which includes Oxford and Cambridge universities as well as Warwick and Glasgow among others, said the upshot would be universities facing the closure of hundreds of courses, with fewer academic staff and bigger classes.

It said reports suggested as many as 30 universities might not survive in their current form if even minimal funding cuts were introduced.

The article also highlighted higher education spending in other countries.

I've said it before... not a good time to be a student (though at least we're not students five years down the line?)