UCU: To campaign for a student distribution system in HE

Motion

Motion text: Conference notes that student recruitment patterns:
1. mean some universities hoard undergraduate students, while others struggle to recruit.
2. have led to greater uncertainty and instability in the sector which has been used to systematically undermine pay and conditions
3. have been used by management as a pretext to cut staff costs, including department closures and redundancies
4. translate to poor learning conditions for students, unsustainable workloads for staff at universities that over-recruit and increased casualisation across the sector.
The current system is designed to bankrupt small HEIs.
Conference believes:
a. the removal of university caps on student numbers by the Tories in 2014 in their pursuit of marketising the sector has been detrimental to higher education and had a negative impact on university staff and students.
b. the UK and devolved governments must reintroduce a managed system of student distribution across the sector based on fairness and equality.
Conference resolves to:
i. commission research on models of student distribution which can create recruitment balance in HE.
ii. begin a high-profile campaign for the better management and distribution of students numbers across all HEIs to protect jobs via the reintroduction of student distribution this coming year, including branch resources, intense lobbying efforts, and media.
iii. instruct HEC to lobby government and opposition parties to adopt such measures.

Proposing body: Composite (Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Edinburgh, Bangor University, University of Kent, University of East Anglia, Southern regional committee)