In a letter sent to all staff at the University of Edinburgh (UoE), vice-chancellor Peter Mathieson cites ‘systemic issues’ in the university’s funding model and a lack of public funds to excuse the introduction of a complete recruitment freeze. This will see new staff hired only under exceptional circumstances.
Those most affected by these new measures will be staff members on fixed-term contracts, many of whom are early on in their career.
UoE staff have long been fighting against casualisation, which includes fixed-term and guaranteed hours contracts. Across UK universities, half of all teaching staff and two-thirds of research staff are on insecure contracts.
As precarity and job scarcity grows, many workers will have to seek jobs in other sectors.
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UoE, meanwhile, is regularly included in lists of the wealthiest universities in the UK. As of 2023, the institution boasted a £559.8 million endowment.
Mathieson himself sits on a £418k per year pay cheque. “Bet this doesn’t apply to PM’s business class flights,” said one colleague in response to the letter.
Nor any of his bills: last year, Mathieson’s household expenditures alone totalled £43,966, up £26,056 from the previous year – equivalent to a full-time lecturer’s salary!
These expenses cover all of the costs for Mathieson’s £1.5 million Regent Terrace townhouse, provided to him at no cost by the university, including extensive renovations and eucalyptus tree maintenance (essential work, of course!).
Free housing and bills for the VC, while staff struggle to pay for theirs – looks like it’s socialism for those at the top, and capitalism for the rest of us!
UoE is not exceptional. Higher education across Britain is in tatters, as austerity measures cut universities to the bone year after year.
The security and wellbeing of staff and students is being relegated in favour of attracting private investment and boosting university bosses’ income. Academic pay, meanwhile, has fallen by 25 percent in real terms since 2010, and precarity is getting worse and worse.
The new Labour government has already confirmed it will not bail out universities, telling them to “manage their budgets”.
Under Mathieson’s recruitment pause, conditions will only get worse for workers and students.
There is no future for the University of Edinburgh – or any universities – under capitalism.
Universities will only thrive as places of learning once they are fully under worker and student control, funded by expropriating the wealth of big business.
It’s time to kick capitalism and imperialism off campus, and invest in books not bombs!
Anglia Ruskin University: Money for the Tories, cuts for workers
An investigation by the local UCU branch has revealed that Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) donated £50,000 to none other than the Conservative Party.
The response by vice-chancellor Roderick Watkins has been to feign ignorance. The payment is described as an ‘error’ he knew nothing about. Well, if I made a £50,000 ‘error’ in my job, I would certainly know about it!
This ‘gift’ was made through an account belonging to LCA London, which trades under ARU London. The owner of the company, Ravi Gill, just so happens to be the chair of ARU London (and founder of the London College of Accountancy.)
So the idea that this was a ‘mistake’ simply does not wash. As ARU UCU points out:
“Ravi Gill is a qualified and certified accountant and must know [he] is not permitted to make donations to political parties.”
Mr Gill is not just an accountant – he is a thief, plain and simple, and knew exactly what he was doing when he made that donation.
So if a university boss and certified accountant can just chuck £50k around like loose change, it begs the question: what other shady goings-on are happening in our universities?
We’re assured that the bosses know best when it comes to university finances. But whilst the books are closed to students and staff, we can never know how much money is truly being wasted – or even outrightly stolen, as in this case.
Our experiences are the same in universities up and down the country. Vicious attacks are being levelled against education workers in places like UEA and QMUL, all because – according to the bosses – there is not enough money.
This is despite the rip-off fees paid by students (especially international students), and many staff salaries lagging behind inflation.
In all universities we must demand: Open up the books!
Let us see where the money is being wasted, like on eye-watering salaries for those at the top, and put that back into pay, services, and all other areas where it is desperately needed.
Only under our control – as workers and students – can we begin planning and running of our universities rationally, and not for profit.
An ARU worker
