London Met crisis: The vultures begin to circle

As international students consider
their options in the wake of the London Met fiasco, other institutions
are licking their lips. With fees for international students even higher
than the £9,000 that British students (not including Scottish students)
pay many universities are keen to herd as many students as possible
into their courses.

London Met fallout is ‘bonanza’ for other universities and private colleges

With higher education funding cut, competition for students is
fierce, their fees helping to fill the hole in funding. Inevitably
though, squeezing more students into fewer universities means that the
quality of teaching will suffer through larger class sizes, less contact
time with tutors, and a stretch on resources such as library books, IT
and administrative facilities. As trade unions have repeatedly
highlighted, one of the reasons for London Met’s failure to properly
monitor the teaching of its students was that it was cutting staff and
resources in the important student registry, which is also being
privatised.

This sudden and artificial increase in demand for courses by the
withdrawal of London Met’s visa-issuing status is, according to Bahram
Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, “a
godsend” for the suppliers (other UK higher education institutions), if
only a temporary one.

With institutions like the University of East London and the
University of Bedfordshire chasing students, we have serious doubts as
to whether their administrative resources can cope. This is just a case
of university management teams chasing the money without a thought for
the provision of actual teaching.

Regent’s College, a private university, is offering former London Met
students places with a waiver on the difference in fees. Regent’s
College charges more than London Met. Whether students will continue to
receive these same discounts in subsequent years of study is doubtful.

The education sector is not immune to capitalism’s maladies, and just
like in other areas of the economy, it resolves problems by storing up
bigger contradictions for the future. This means a stratified higher
education sector – more expensive, with lower quality teaching. It will
not be a surprise if more universities follow London Met’s lead and cut
corners on staffing and administration in order to make up the gap in
funding.

All of this makes clear that capitalism’s crisis is infecting every
aspect of society and that the only solution is an economy – and
education system – organised along socialist lines.

Socialist Appeal applauds the solidarity British student unions have
offered their international peers and supports the campaign of London
Met students against deportations.

London UAL Marxists:
marxist@su.arts.ac.uk Tel: Jana 07428595660