UoE, a value-extraction machine

Squeezing fees from students to serve its mounting debt

Student numbers increased by 26% between 2015 and 2020*, but tuition fees income increased by 76%.

(*) [latest available University annual report]

A mechanism to produce inequality

In 2020 the Principal earned 10.6 times more than the average staff member: compare £392K (Mathieson’s pay) and £36.9K (median wage).

The University has its own elite “1%” or so: in 2020, 299 staff, i.e. 1.8% of the total of 16,098 staff earn over £100K and up to £350K. Meanwhile, at least 42.6% of staff in 2020 are on casual contracts (University’s own estimate).

A real estate business

Between 2016 and 2018, the University has gone into massive debt, in particular by subscribing £350 million loans directly or facilitated by one US investor, Northwestern Mutual.

Its current outstanding debt (2020) is at a staggering £591.3 million – i.e. at more than 50% of its annual income, which is a rate of debt much higher than for the rest of Scottish Universities. This is to contribute towards the £1.2 billion ‘estate strategy’ (for vanity projects and extracting more rents from students) which the University says it ‘remains committed to’ despite covid 19. To serve this debt, the University is pushing for more income: extracting more fees from students and more underpaid labour from staff, completing the cycle of exploitation.

What can we do?

The university isn’t going to change its fundamental motivations and social context all at once. It will take many people working together to coordinate changes throughout the whole institution and beyond to put education above profit and create a new, more egalitarian university.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act yet- now is the time to start organising ourselves, building relationships across divides, between departments and disciplines, and foster the ongoing processes of listening and learning from each other’s unique perspectives.

Support the strikes

We can start this off right now by supporting the staff members who are striking for better working conditions. Building solidarity between students and staff is vital to break down the false divisions that spring up wherever marketisation and competition are the rule.

The vast majority of students say they support the strikes, but many aren’t sure what the best way to contribute is. We’re helping to organise a planned response so that we can all help support striking staff and quickly end this action with concessions from the university.

You can join us on the picket lines every day of the strikes, from 8:30am to 12:30pm. If you’re not sure where the picket lines at your buildings are, reach out to your tutors, lecturers, or supervisor, send a message to the Staff Student Solidarity Network Facebook page, or email sssnedi@gmail.com.

There will be an online demonstration Thursday at 1pm - follow our social media for the event details & updates.

All figures on this leaflet were compiled on the basis of the University of Edinburgh’s recent Annual Reports.