Lecturers to form next plan of attack on pay
Lecturers attending the last Association of University Teachers conference in Scarborough today had been hoping to celebrate securing a significant pay claim. Instead, top of the agenda at the final AUT council meeting before it merges next month with lecturers' union, Natfhe, will be the increasingly bitter industrial dispute. The AUT general secretary, Sally Hunt, will report back to members on the stalled pay negotiations with the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association on Monday. Ucea offered 12.6 per cent over three years but AUT and Natfhe wanted 23 per cent .
The Guardian
Lecturers warned: a better pay offer could cost jobs
Universities could be forced to make academic staff redundant if they have to increase their latest pay offer to lecturers, it was claimed last night. Talks aimed at resolving the dispute collapsed after the Association of University Teachers rejected an offer of 12 per cent. The University College Employers' Association has insisted that it will not increase its offer, while the AUT has vowed to continue with industrial action unless the deal is improved. Senior higher education sources are now warning that many Scottish universities can barely afford the current offer and that staff numbers may have to be cut to fund any increased offer.
The Scotsman
Tory policy on education was mad, says Johnson
The Conservatives' policy at the last election of reducing student numbers, abolishing tuition fees and scrapping so-called Mickey Mouse degrees was "mad", Boris Johnson, the party's new spokesman on higher education, said last night. "We're a nation that believes in bettering ourselves by comparison with others, and it strikes me as odd that the Tory party can have seemed to stand in the way of that self-betterment," he said. Mr Johnson, the MP for Henley, said he did not believe in a Government target of 50 per cent of young people going to university, but that was because he did not believe in targets.
The Daily Telegraph
Modular exams 'damaging degree courses'
Universities have been forced to remove some important and cutting edge content of degree courses in science and engineering to make way for remedial maths teaching since the Government's reform of A-level, academics claimed yesterday. Departments at some of the leading universities are increasingly recruiting students from abroad to fill courses and keep them viable because of the lack of well qualified home applicants, they said. The modular nature of the new A-level, which is in six parts examined at different times, means students have forgotten much of what they have learned by the time they get to university, they said.
The Daily Telegraph
Warning over NHS funding plans for London universities
London universities warned today that more than 3,000 staff could lose their jobs if plans proceed to change the NHS research and development budget. At present, the capital receives one-third of the national health research budget and London vice-chancellors fear new arrangements will mean funding is spread more evenly in the future. A report by London Higher, an umbrella group that represents 43 higher education institutions in London, estimates the financial impact of NHS proposals to restructure the research budget may cost London institutions £17.5 million in the first year alone.
The Guardian
Tenders for physics lab wasted time and money
Weaknesses in the tendering process for a new National Physical Laboratory helped delay the project by six years and cost contractors more than £100 million, according to a new report. The £95 million project to replace world-renowned scientific labs in Teddington, south west London, was the first major contract under the Private Finance Initiative to be terminated because of serious deficiencies in contractor performance, said the report published today by the National Audit Office. Contractors Laser - a consortium of Serco Group and John Laing Construction - pulled out of the project with massive losses in 2004.
The Guardian
Scots universities 'missing out' on nanotechnology cash
The authors of a new report have warned Scottish universities are in danger of missing out on commercial returns in nanotechnology. Marks & Clerk's Nanotechnology Report claims the rapid growth of patent applications in three key areas of nanotechnology in the United States and the Far East is not being matched closer to home. The trademark attorney, which has an office in Edinburgh, claims that universities here are not filing enough patents in nanoenergy, nanoelectronics and nanotechnology in health and personal care.
The Scotsman