Issue 56 – Spring 2017 cheesegratermagazine.org
Senior Academics Revolt Against Management Ollie Phelan A covert group of senior academics are plotting a staff revolt over worries that UCL East is endangering the university’s future. Some members of the group, who style themselves as Save UCL Again, or SU(A!), are on the UCL Council, UCL’s central governing body. Sources have told The Cheese Grater that SU(A!) plan to raise their concerns directly at the next council meeting on February 14th. Worries centre on the viability of UCL
East, both financially and academically. Initial projections on the financial tenability of the project were largely optimistic and did not take into account the repercussions of the Brexit vote, with the potential reduction in EU students. There is also confusion over the status of the government loan promised by Boris Johnson, now that the former mayor has left office. Indeed, this is prompting further worries over UCL’s ability to pay back the massive £280 million loan they received from the European Investment Bank, which puts further financial pressure on the already cash-tight college.
Academics are also anxious that UCL East will prompt a move away from the science based research UCL has traditionally been renowned for, in favour of a teaching based approach. In an attempt to offer completely new degrees that would not otherwise be based in Bloomsbury, UCL revealed in a press release that they will provide “new degrees and research programmes that are developed from multi-disciplinary collaborations across the core themes of heritage, design, materials, performance, memory and media.” (Cont’d on page 2)
