UCU was once again at the head of the higher education sector’s fight against for-profit companies this week as almost 500 leading academics used a letter to the Daily Telegraph this Wednesday to warn against government plans to allow for-profit companies to play a bigger role in UK higher education.
The letter, signed by 471 leading members of the academy, warns against giving for-profit companies substantial access to taxpayers’ money through publicly-subsidised loans and allowing companies, including private equity firms, to acquire struggling universities.
The signatories, which include the general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU) Sally Hunt, the vice-chancellor of the University of Salford Professor Martin Hall, two former principals of Oxford colleges Alan Ryan and David Marquand and 10 emeritus professors, say the government must learn from America where for-profit companies have been embroiled in scandals over the mis-selling of degrees.
You can read the letter here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8938812/Universities-should-not-be-run-for-profit.html.
The Telegraph also carried an accompanying article on the Open Letter which you can read here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8881937/Professors-warn-over-expansion-of-private-universities.html
Read the union’s press release here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5848&from=5840.
i study in policy and management in Hong Kong. I want to ask government response on privatization of university and the logic behind it.Thanks