UCU: National public campaign to defend higher education in UK

Motion

Motion text: Our sector faces cuts driven by 'market forces' and government. However branches are mostly left fighting cuts locally.
Academic freedom of inquiry is under attack. Consequently:
disciplines or activities cease on cost grounds without debate,
research becomes dominated by external interests or product development,
teaching and research separate,
student applicants are priced out of less vocational subjects,
students work through college and spend less time on their studies, and
the social distribution of graduates narrows.

Conference believes the freedom of academics to pursue their research interests and for this to inform their teaching is a social good – not a commodity for sale.

Conference calls for a national campaign against cuts in the HE sector, to explain the value of HE to the public, fight for increased funding and oppose cuts and redundancies wherever they are threatened.