Responding to a speech today (Tuesday) by the Prime Minister, the
University and College Union (UCU) said further education
desperately needed funding because of a decade of cuts under
Conservative governments.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘Further education is in
dire need of funding, but that is because Conservative and
coalition governments of the last 10 years have decimated it. It
is remarkable that the Prime Minister has the audacity to lament
a lack of funding for colleges and to criticise record student
debt levels when they are the direct result of decisions taken by
his party. Today’s plans will not undo a decade of cuts.
‘We welcome the recognition of the role that colleges will have
to play if we can come back stronger and build back better, as
the Prime Minister said today. But, who is going to deliver it?
We have 24,000 fewer lecturers than a decade ago, and teaching in
further education is not as attractive following a 30% real-terms
pay cut over the last decade. Colleges say they are already
struggling to attract and retain staff to meet current demand.
‘These rehashed funding plans will simply not be enough to enable
further education to lead our recovery. We need to see the
funding to match the ambition.
‘Everyone should be entitled to education as part of a national
recovery effort that addresses both our economic and social
needs. Post-Covid we will likely require many who do not have
post A-level education to also adapt to a new normal as well. A
universal education entitlement will be required for the nation
to get through this.’
A report by
the Institute for Fiscal Studies released last year found
that adult education, further education and skills spending on
young people have been hardest hit by austerity since 2010.
It found that between 2010–11 and 2018–19, spending per student
fell by 12% in real terms in 16–18 colleges and by 23% in school
sixth forms. Following on from larger cuts during the 1990s and
lower growth than most other stages of education during the
2000s, further education spending per 16-to-18-year-old is due to
be only about 13% greater in 2018–19 than it was about 30 years
earlier in 1989–90.
