UCL students have organised the National Convention/Campaign against Fees and Cuts (and anything else they can think of while they're at it), which is all well and good - no one wants to see students' fees rise, or cuts made to higher education budgets. I have a couple of problems though:
- They're fighting the wrong people. While 'management' (despite being academic-led, apparently as soon as you become anything other than a poor, miserable lecturer having to teach, you're labelled as management) may well be implementing cuts before they are actually made by government, it is the government who are cutting their spending. Universities, like UCL, are merely reacting to the fact that they will have less money coming in than previously. I don't know about you, but when I get less money I spend less money. Weird, huh?
- They support occupations. What a load of nonsense. At times like this we need our universities to listen to our students. I want to be able to go to the library 24/7 during my exams, and budget cuts put this in jeopardy. Rather than pissing authorities off by occupying lecture theatres - and consequently being ignored - we need the university to listen to our priorities, have dialogue with us and make sure the impact of cuts isn't felt where we don't want it to be. If cuts are going to be made, we need to be part of the decision, not ignored because we're throwing toys out of the pram.
- UCL doesn't have great finances. The left are fond of talking about the Campaign for UCL which has raised £100m for UCL - but it's not like UCL are keeping this in the bank. I've been using the study space in the Science Library, which has obviously cost a lot of money. I study in Foster Court, which has thankfully been done up since my first year, when, let's face it, it was a shithole. They've been spending money on, er, us students. Their accounts from last year show less than £100m cash. Historically they have run at a deficit. When there's less money around, you need to save some. And UCL hasn't been doing that. So they need to cut their budget and start keeping some cash to pay for, I don't know, doing up more lecture theatres. I'm paying almost three and a half grand to go to the 4th best university in the world and the left think it's ok for me not to expect UCL to invest in a campus I want to study at?!
- Unions are striking. Leeds have already voted in favour of a strike, and UCU at UCL have decided to hold a ballot too. Instead of pissing me off by cancelling teaching, refusing to mark work and invigilate exams, maybe they should, I don't know, lobby government instead? It's not like us students - who will be the only ones to feel the effect of any strike - can change the funding situation. Unless they expect us to pay more...?
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ReplyDeleteI note that you have begun this blog in response to Defend UCL Modern Languages. However, it is apparent in your rather muddled style that you have projected a lot of the frustrations you hold against 'the left' onto the latter.
ReplyDeleteDefend UCL Modern Languages is a single-issue organisation whose members are extremely diverse - Liberals, Tories, Labour, Socialists, the lot. We have established the website in order to report on, criticise and raise awareness of broad opinions regarding a rather hurried consultation. We have not come to argue for the unification of the world into an agrarian collective made of all hessian. You may have noticed the lack of the word 'solidarity'.
At the moment, the general consensus is that course closures and the firing of experienced staff members will have directly damaging effects on the quality of education offered by the French department.
By opening the discussion, the idea is to gather opinions in order to have a genuine consultation and compromise.
I share your distaste for faith-based extreme politics of any kind, and I hope you will criticise it for years to come. However, I advise you not to tar any organisation questioning the intentions of the institution as anarchist or lefty. It leads to poor prose and lazy opinions.
You would spend your time far better by investigating those organisations which allow their issues to slide into a general political agenda (the National Convention has done this repeatedly). Investigate them, expose them, argue with them. But please don't mistake Defend UCL Modern Languages for one of them.
Oh, not specifically the Defend UCL ML blog - sorry if you got this impression from this post (which doesn't mention ML once!). I think your aims would be better served by not letting it get hijacked by the vehemently against any type of cuts brigade, because it waters down the likelihood of your being listened to, but I think it is a noble cause regardless. (Allowing your blog to host posts that ignore what the review states and replace it with speculation is also a no-go: let's have common-sense, evidence-based arguments here! A great example is your pointing out the need for admins in departments to speak foreign languages. They do already, it helps students, they need to, etc. Plus points for that, minus points for lying. Sorry. Be consistent!)
ReplyDeleteWhat my main gripe is is the fact that some people are ignoring the fact that a) cuts are basically government's fault, b) UCL has been running at a deficit for many years, which is bad fiscal policy to say the least, and, a general point, c) there is a lack of common sense and too much hot-headed emotion in the 'debate' at UCL. It's not even a debate. It's just a 'Oh, you're not allowed to accept cuts because that's evil'.