In a budget that the Chancellor branded ‘tough but fair’ a number of new financial measures were announced. Post-16 education issues were not directly addressed, having seen cuts already announced, but a number of policies were announced that will impact UCU members and wider society. The 25% cut in departmental budgets will certainly impact UCU [...]

UCU has produced a short response to issues raised by the 2010 Queen’s Speech: UCU response tp the 2010 Queen’s Speech, May 10 (.pdf) [51kb] UCU response tp the 2010 Queen’s Speech, May 10 (.doc) [162kb]

We’ve received a short report from a ‘meet the candidates’ meeting held at the University of Northampton on 23 April. Ten candidates vying for the seats in Northampton North and South attended, including those representing the three major parties, the Green Party, UKIP, Save Our Public Services and two independents. The candidates were asked to [...]

UCU Scotland arranged a hustings at Stirling University to highlight issues facing higher education in Scotland. Though higher education policy and funding is devolved the candidates and audience still found many subjects to debate. The meeting was chaired by Ralph Catts, President of Stirling UCU The candidates who attended were: Bob Dalrymple, Conservative Alison Lindsay, [...]

A full rundown of the Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Green party manifestos as they spell out policies on adult, further and higher education, plus trade union issues. The party manifestos – FE Adult and HE (.pdf) The party manifestos – FE Adult and HE (.doc)

The NUS has now published the names of 1,000+ parliamentary candidates who have signed their pledge. This includes, so far, 200 Labour, 400 Liberal Democrat, 13 Conservative, 200 Green, and 200 UKIP candidates. The pledge reads: ‘I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to [...]

We’ve put together a short compilation of the People’s Panel videos which shows what they were all about. Our panel of voters quizzed candidates about different aspects of education – this ranged from primary education to higher education and spanned everything from community learning and vocational courses to post graduate research and science funding. You [...]

The excellent Campaign for Science & Engineering (CaSE) wrote to the leaders of the three main political parties asking them to set out their policies for science and engineering in advance of the election. They’ve so far heard back from David Cameron and Nick Clegg. It’s well worth taking a look at the replies. For [...]

UPDATE: you can read one report from the event on the Hackney Citizen blog. Wed 21 April 6.00pm Hackney Community College Lecture Theatre Falkirk Street, Hackney N1 6HQ UCU and Hackney Community College invite you to come along, ask questions and debate the future of education. Representatives from political parties will be at the college to answer your [...]