Sally Hunt

Policy briefing

Funding, relationships with government and UCU

Government now has greater control over what and who is funded in higher and further education than ever before. The intermediary bodies for HE (HEFCE and its Scottish and Welsh equivalents) and FE (The LSC) are in essence branches of government who provide funding linked to wider policy objectives.

The clash between this increasing central control and institutional autonomy in recent weeks raises some important questions for UCU members:

• HEFCE refused to intervene to save the Physics department at Reading University yet entered the debate about governance at Oxford with a veiled threat to reduce funding if the institution did not reform

• Similarly government ministers told me regarding Reading that it is not their job to micromanage universities and yet in the same week issued detailed guidance to every institution on how to deal with “extremism on campus.”

• Supposedly independent pay negotiations for UCU members in the Medical Research Council have to wait on government approval before they are enacted.

• In further education the DFES, the Treasury and No 10 all support the devolvement of college management to the most local level, yet intervene time and time again through funding switches, changed priorities and reviews to leave managers and teachers feeling impotent.

The union, in arguing for increased resources has to therefore also make sure that we are making the case for coherent policy too.

As general secretary of UCU my political priorities will be:

• A properly funded adult education sector in further and higher education

• A commitment from government, national and devolved to academic freedom

• A system of public funding which is accountable and transparent

• A fairer system for allocating research and teaching grants in universities

• An overall education strategy which respects and supports learning for its own sake

So how do we achieve this?

UCU has to build on its professional contacts with all political parties. I have considerable experience of developing these relationships as general secretary of AUT and I know how long it takes to build a relationship of respect between ourselves, ministers and civil servants. What is said in public can and should be assertive, it cannot however be based on personal abuse or the doors will shut.

To raise the new union’s profile and influence I will:

• Establish a new parliamentary lobbying team which cuts across both further and higher education and works as an integral part of the general secretary’s office

• Establish a new parliamentary group of UCU MP s and members of the lords in Westminster and similar groups in the devolved parliaments

• Establish effective links with other friendly MPs such as the trade union parliamentary group

• Campaign for the enshrinement in law of academic freedom as has been done in Scotland

• Campaign for more transparency in the way FE and HE institutions spend public money

• Establish coordinated links with the unions working in prisons and rehabilitation to press the Home Office and the DFES for better funding and support

• Work to develop links with opposition parties as they develop their manifestos

• Establish a reporting mechanism on parliamentary activity, what our elected representatives say and do, to be available to all members

• Build on my already growing range of contacts with civil servants

• Continue to develop my links with the DTI and DFID to better protect education on the international stage against the commercial impact of globalisation

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About me

I am the joint general secretary of the UCU, having been general secretary of the Association of University Teachers since 2002. I have spent the majority of my working life supporting education professionals, and was instrumental in negotiating the merger between AUT and NATFHE to form UCU. If you want to know more about my experience go to my biography.

Join the debate

Nobody has all the answers. I believe that if we are to move forward together we have to listen to each other to establish common ground. If you have any comments about this paper or want to suggest ways of improving our union go to http://sallyhuntucu.blogspot.com/ and join the debate.

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