Universities will lose 22,500 jobs in England if the government presses ahead with plans to cut higher education funding by 25 per cent, the Universities and College Union (UCU) says.
Analysis carried out by the union relating to England reveals that 22,584 full time equivalent teaching jobs will be lost if recurrent finding is cut by 25 per cent, which would result in a student to staff ratio (SSR) of 20:2:1.
The UK already has a larger SSR than France, Germany, Japan and the USA and the UCU warns that the cuts would have a devastating impact on the overall student experience as other services such as libraries and student counselling would be affected.
Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the UCU said:
"The scale of the cuts that we are facing is unprecedented and will have an undeniable impact on the student experience. Student to staff ratios, which are already high, will become some of the highest in the developed world.”
The union also warns that while the UK is currently the second most popular destination in the world for foreign students behind the US, that position will come under threat as large class sizes and less contact with lecturers deter overseas learners from coming here. They contribute £8.5 billion to the UK economy.
Meanwhile, as the country’s position as a leading player in the global knowledge economy is looking unstable, earlier this year President Barack Obama pledged that by 2020 the US will have the highest proportion of university graduates in the world.
Sally Hunt said:
"Do we really want to be left behind and risk being shunned by foreign students who will go to study elsewhere? We have a proud international reputation, but we realistically cannot expect to remain a major force in the global knowledge economy in the face of these cuts."
