Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Students and staff fighting cuts at University of Sussex

Stop the cuts | 05.12.2009 15:39 | Education | South Coast

Whilst Vice Chancellor Michael Farthing is sitting pretty on a salary of £227,000.
Sussex University’s budget for 2009/10 seeks to reduce costs by £3m, with additional savings of up to £5m in 2010/11. These cuts will take the form of (among others), 115+ staff redundancies, the closure of the creche and the closure of the sexual health advice centre.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST CUTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

University management calls Police on its own students following announcement of over 100 redundancies

Following proposals for over 100 redundancies across Sussex campus, over 500 students and staff held a demonstration on thursday morning. After a rally of speeches, demonstrators entered the building where University management was holding a meeting to discuss these proposals. Students and staff lined the corridors of the building, demanding that the university be held accountable for its proposed cuts to academics and staff across the board. Since the cuts were announced last week, there has been a growing resistance amongst the campus community. This has included the local UCU branch voting unanimously to reject the proposals, which include compulsory redundancies for some members of staff. The proposals also include cuts to advice and student support services, nursery and crèche facilities, support staff, and the discontinuing of all Modern Language degrees.

Half an hour after the demonstrators entered the building, Michael Farthing (Vice Chancellor of Sussex University) called the Police, who arrived to break up the peaceful demonstration. The protestors left of their own volition, and continued the rally outside.
- ----- ------ --------- -------- ---------- -------- ----- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
The Stop the Cuts campaign formed in response to plans by the university administration to cut back on spending by millions in the next few years. The university is planning to cut £3 million this academic year, and £5 million next year.

The costs of these cuts will be passed on to schools through restructuring and course closures, and to staff and students in the shape of job losses, pensions cuts and fee increases. However at the same time as proposing these cuts, the university administration is planning to spend £112 million on new buildings and refurbishments on campus, as well as raising the salaries of the top 14 managers to a combined £2.1 million per year.

If they take place, the cuts proposed by the administration could fundamentally change the university as an environment for learning, teaching and working. For students and academic staff, the cuts will undermine the university as a place that recognizes the inherent value of academic knowledge and research. As the costs of the spending cuts are passed on to schools, the way in which academic work and research is evaluated will be changed to orient schools towards areas that produce the most income for the university. Research will only be encouraged if it is business driven or funded by external bodies,. Education at Sussex will be subordinated to the interests of business.

This will not only mean that courses will be simplified as research is steered in more lucrative directions, but will also put areas that don’t provide enough income at risk of cuts, dramatic restructuring and closures. Engineering and Design, Life Sciences, and Informatics have already been identified as schools that, as they are failing to make money, are under immediate threat.

For academic staff at Sussex these changes mean they will be put in to competition with their colleagues to try and defend their area of research. Individual academics will be at risk of losing their jobs if their research does not attract income. Both academic staff and other employees of the university are being threatened with job losses and pension cuts.

The Stop the Cuts campaign demands that the university administration makes no compulsory redundancies and resists student fees and cuts in higher education spending. It argues for the reining in of executive pay, the postponement of new building projects, and the protection of academic freedom.

Stop the cuts
- e-mail: sussexstoptrhecuts@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://defendsussex.wordpress.com/

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. correction of email address — stopthecuts
  2. pissed off — student
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech