By Joe Rukin
Due to a new system of allocating money from the standards fund, the Association of Colleges (AoC) claim that colleges have lost and average of £65,000 this year. Over 70% of sixth-form and FE colleges have been allocated less money through the Goverments Standards Fund in 2002/03. Previously, colleges had been allocated the money centrally though the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) national office, but besides the lack of that £65k, the only difference this year is the fact the funds are administered by each of the 47 local LSC offices.
The AoC claims the LSC are holding money back unexpectedly and that the Standards Fund for colleges had been cut by 25% overall. Dr John Brennan, AoC director of funding and development said:
"As government is aware, colleges' finances are already in a serious condition. Most colleges are very dependent on their Standards Fund allocations to deliver improved services to students and to ensure that staff have access to training and development. At the local level, these cuts obviously make it hard for colleges to forward plan with security. Nationally, they widen the yawning gap between schools funding and that for colleges - where the majority of the 16-year olds government wants to target are studying."
The AoC survey suggests colleges expect to receive an average of £190,504 from the standards fund this year compared with £255,099 in 2001/02. Sources within the LSC are also worried that the new student support bursaries for college students are not being taken up because students and colleges don't know they exist. Details of funding available can be found on the LSC Website
This cut in funding is fuelling the fact more and more colleges across the country are running out of money. In Wales, Yale Tertiary College in Wrexham is expected to record its first ever budget deficit this year. Colleges are still waiting for their share of the £15bn boost Gordon Brown promised for education in July's comprehensive spending review.
Emyln Jones said just before his retirement as Yale principal;
"It is anticipated that Yale College will be recording, for the first time ever, a budget deficit. The indications are that Yale College will not be alone in this respect and is subject to the already reported under-funding of the FE sector."
In London, the second wave of redundancies in three years will see up to 16 more staff cut at Epping Forest College, as they struggle to cope with a £400,000 funding shortfall.
Of the many pressures felt by colleges on their finances, the subject of pay for lecturers is sure to be one that will be felt this term as unions prepare to strike again.
A one-day stoppage is planned for November 5th in protest over the "derisory" 2.3% pay offer from the Association of Colleges. Colleges want £110m from the Government just so they can match lecturers' pay with schoolteachers, as many lecturers desert colleges for better pay in secondary education. NATFHE have already voted to strike and with staff in Unison, the GMB, the ATL and the TGWU to be balloted.
All six FE unions have now rejected the 2.3% offer and now face their first ever joint industrial action. NATFHE national executive member Jon Bryan, a sociology lecturer at Newcastle College, said:
"The pay offer has been made at 2.3pc and that is well below what teachers were offered. Lecturers feel quite strongly that we should have parity of pay with teachers."
Lecturers Unions have also attacked the Government for their attempt to 'side step' EU employment rights legislation at the TUC Congress. The unions condemned the government for its obstruction of European laws designed to protect workers on short-term contracts. Over 50,000 lecturers work part-time, with the majority of these on short-term, hourly pay or agency contracts. Higher education employs 11% of all fixed term contract workers, second only to the hotel and catering sector. The motion to the TUC calls on the government to extend protection under existing regulations - and to extend the scope of forthcoming legislation to provide adequate
protection for all part-time, casual and agency workers. It also says employers should be prevented from continuing to use fixed term contracts for more than two years and demands that the UK part-time workers regulations should be amended to provide proper legal protection against discrimination.
Andrew Marley of NATFHE said:
" The UK government has consistently been
using exemptions or restrictive interpretations of EU law to prevent or
delay UK employees from having the same protection as their EU
colleagues. It is unacceptable that UK workers should be treated as
second-class citizens. In FE and HE, 50% of academic staff and 75% of new starters are placed on short-term contracts. Independent research shows that the quality of
education which students receive is undermined by over reliance on
casual staff. Casualisation is a scandal across post-school education."
The AUT's General Secretary, Sally Hunt, said:
"Fixed-term contracts
lead to job insecurity, worse pay and conditions, and reinforce sexism
and racism - because it's women and black staff who are
disproportionately retained on a casual basis. At a time when there is a clear crisis looming in higher education over
recruitment and retention it obviously would make good sense for
employers to put their staff on permanent contracts and make working in
universities more attractive."
The funding crisis is being responded to in different ways at different colleges, with staff at West Lothian College delivering a unanimous vote of no confidence in principal Sue Pinder, following the announcement of 13 redundancies, a cut in classes & student intake and debts of £844,000 for the year.
Hoping to cash in on big development grants for merging, Chester College and Warrington Collegiate Institute hope to merge and create the University of Cheshire before the end of the year. The colleges were granted permission to merge following an inspection by the Department of Education and final approval from the LSC.
Related Articles
Public Finance, New further education funding system has cut colleges' cash
BBC, Colleges say funding is being cut
IC Wales, We're running out of money, colleges warn
IC Cheshire, Colleges merge to boost university bid
IC Newcastle, College lecturers in strike threat
West Lothian Courier, No confidence vote at college
This is London, Funds shortfall causes job losses at college
