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thebadgeronline.com
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4th May 2020
THE
Official free fortnightly newspaper by and for Sussex students
Universities in crisis
News
Pollution Drop, Quarantine Cutie The financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic will cause severe damage across the higher & education sector, as universities brace for losses in the region of £7 billion Ventilators 4 Becca Bashford News Editor Universities are bracing for an inevitable financial abyss as they scramble to come to grips with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, Universities UK (UUK) sent a proposal to the government, in which they warned that without support some institutions will face complete financial failure, and others would come so close to failure that they will be forced to “reduce provisions for students, or significantly scale back research activities and capacity”. The proposal predicts that universities across the UK will face losses of £790 million from accomodation, catering, and conferences alone, with an additional £6.9 billion at risk from lost international student fees. As such, Universities UK have asked for an immediate uplift of around £2 billion, alongside other specific measures which seek to protect research, and a controversial one-off return to student number controls, or “caps”. UUK’s Chief Executive Alastair Jarvis said that the package will help to “protect the student interest, to maintain research capacity, to prevent institutions failing and maintain the capacity to play a central role in the recovery of the economy
and communities following the crisis”. He added that in return, universities “will act collectively and responsibly to promote sector-wide financial stability in these challenging times and help the country to get back on its feet and people to rebuild their lives”. The proposal has been welcomed by some, but UCU has said that it “does not go far enough”. General Secretary Jo Grady said: “This looks like a piecemeal approach that fails to recognise the size of the problem, or the damage we risk doing to our academic capacity. We need a fundamental shift in how universities operate if we are to protect our institutions, staff and students, and to ensure higher education can play its vital role in the recovery.” The return to student number controls has become an increasing concern. Some universities fear that caps on admissions will create a space for the competitive “stockpiling” of domestic students. UCU said the government should “rein in” Russell Group Universities from “hoovering up more students from the newer, post 92 universities” by “providing proper underpinning for the whole sector, and insist on more effective cooperation from universities.” Some universities have turned
Comment
Isolated Elders & Should media be moderated? 6 geralt to terminating staff contracts in an attempt to save money. Staff on precarious contracts at Bristol and Newcastle University have already been issued redundancy notices, while the University of Sussex is preparing to terminate the contracts of any “non-essential” staff “as soon as possible”. This came just weeks after university staff embarked on the longest strike in history, with casualised contracts and precarity being one of their largest concerns. In an email to staff conveying a new financial review, Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell said that the university is in a “solid financial position”, but “it is imperative that we now move to a vastly different mode of thinking and behaviour when it comes to our budgets and how we spend the University’s cash.” The financial review reads: “Nonessential assignments currently
held by temporary or agency staff will need to be reviewed and come to an end as soon as possible. Where there is capacity, tasks should be undertaken by staff members of your team or nonessential tasks may need to be temporarily suspended in order to focus on core business activity”. UCU General Secretary Jo Grady has said that every measure should be taken to protect casualised staff amid the Covid-19 crisis. In an article for The Guardian, she implored that the government “guarantee all staff – including those on casual contracts – benefit from furlough arrangements. In the longer term, it should also commit to a review of the endemic casualisation of further and higher education.” Another concern facing universities is the projected loss from international student fees. Continued on Page 4...
‘Failed’ year abroad: thinking back fondly Yazz James
Lucy Howell Page 12
I’m a Global Media and Communications student which – at the time I signed up for the course – meant that I was guaranteed a year abroad in Hong Kong. Due to the political climate in the region, the University (understandably) made the decision to call all Sussex students studying there home in November. As disappointing as this was,
it was no longer safe for us to stay and all classes had been cancelled. Afterwards, a quick effort was made to find all of us alternative solutions; for me, this meant moving to the Netherlands in January to begin a semester at University College Maastricht, but due to the pandemic, I have once again had to return home. Read the full article on Page 14...
Features
West Pier Drinks & Out of the Closet 8
Arts
Educated Review, Music Binges & Curtain Call 10
Travel & Culture Lockdown Letters & COVID-19 in Africa 13
Science & Tech Internet Lasers & Project Gradprentice15
Sports
Keeping Fit in Lockdown & Football 16