Yesterday the college council met to decide whether it will engage with the Tories’ Teaching Excellence Framework, which will allow ‘high performing’ universities to raise their fees in line with inflation. The KCL Marxist society joined a small protest outside the meeting, demanding that education be defended.
Why we oppose the TEF:
- It will place further education colleges and more diverse institutions in working class areas in jeopardy.
- It will be used as an excuse for Russell Group universities to raise their fees indefinitely, year on year, pricing more and more students out.
- The TEF will further the marketization of higher education, add to the pressure on staff and accelerate the development of universities into graduate-generating factories tailored to the needs of the market.
King’s College London already charges students £9,000 a year and council is today considering whether to raise fees next year by nearly £300.
Where are your fees going at the moment?
- Principal Edward Byrne had a 29% pay increase in 2014/15, taking his salary to £458,000 (up from £324,000).
- There are now more managers in the Principal’s leadership team than there are ministers in Theresa May’s cabinet. He and his ‘senior vice-presidents’ (and/or ‘provosts’) earn more than the four great officers of state.
- King’s spent £500m on acquiring Bush House: a grade II listed building, which it now transpires isn’t fit for teaching.
- Frontline staff have taken a 15 per cent pay cut over the past seven years.
Your fees are not being reinvested in teaching, they are lining the pockets of senior staff and going into bloated building projects. £9,000 a year is already £9,000 too much: education should be free!
King’s College London: resist the TEF and invest in education, not student debt!
