WHY LORD ADONIS IS WRONG ABOUT POLYTECHNICS

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Anglia Ruskin University, class discrimination, course cuts, education, employer bias, employment, establishment, funding, funding cuts, government, higher education, House of Lords, job cuts, Lord Adonis, lower income backgrounds, politics, polytechnics, postgraduate study, rent, staff cuts, student accommodation, student debt, student loans, student welfare, tony blair, tuition fees, universities, vice chancellor pay, voters, working class.

This week, former education minister Lord Adonis decided to reopen a debate that was seemingly long-dead. During a report to a House of Lords Committee, he stated that the decision to allow polytechnics to become universities 25 years ago was “a very serious mistake”. This problematic claim reveals the real views of someone who has lately been seen as posing significant challenges of the higher education sector’s issues.

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SAIL AWAY, PROFESSOR HOLMES. YOU WON’T BE MISSED.

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged 2008 crash, academic staff, amorality, banks, Barclays, Bentley, Bolton University, Brexit, Brexit divorce bill, capital, capital flight, capitalism, commentary, commitment, conflict of interest, corporate tax, corporations, corruption, emigration, EU referendum, fair pay, financial crash, Financial Times, George Holmes, government, higher education, HSBC, hubris, inequality, jeremy corbyn, jo johnson, Jose Mourinho, markets, narcissism, neoliberalism, pay equality, pay gap, pay rises, prime minister, regulation, role models, senior management, success, talent flight, tax, uk, universities, university staff, university vice chancellors, vice chancellor pay, wage gap, wealth.

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As the farce of university bosses’ salaries has finally entered mainstream debate this year, I’ve often found myself wishing that the kind of people who are comfortable taking pay rises six times larger than their average member of staff, and who don’t see a problem in sitting on the committees that decide their salary, would just piss off out of our universities altogether. So when I read the FT’s interview* with Bolton Uni VC Prof George Holmes the other day, I’ll admit I was a little surprised to read his proposal for a method of achieving just that.

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JO JOHNSON IS RIGHT FOR ONCE – SOUTHAMPTON UNI SHOULD BE ASHAMED

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academic staff, budget cuts, conflicts of interest, corruption, course closures, cuts, fair pay, government, HEFCE cuts, higher education, higher education cuts, inequality, jo johnson, pay cuts, pay gap, pay inequality, pay rises, pensions, senior management, Times Higher Education, Tories, universities, university closures, University of Southampton, university staff, university vice chancellors, vice chancellor pay, wage gap.

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Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I agree with Jo Johnson. A couple of weeks ago the Tory Universities Minister told university leaders and Vice Chancellors that they needed to “stop ratcheting up pay”. This was a reaction to the news that the VC at Southampton University has received a £125,000 pay rise in the space of 5 years.

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