WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?

Our response has to be local and national, short-term and long-term, practical and visionary. We need a set of actions based around solidarity with the most vulnerable and a commitment that the burden will be borne by those most able to bear it.

No university branch facing redundancies, restructuring or institutional crisis should ever be left to fight alone. Recent years have shown that local disputes quickly become national questions, affecting the future of the entire sector. We therefore commit to building stronger mechanisms of support between branches, sharing resources, coordinating action and strengthening collective organisation across higher education.

First, we will need to resist the imposition of a ‘new normal’ based on permanent cuts and restructures. But we also have to reject a return to the ‘old normal’ of cut-throat competition, market logic, endless bureaucracy and rampant managerialism. 

In the short term, we need to collectivise the risk of redundancy by demanding that instead of job cuts, we have smaller classes; instead of sacking hourly-paid staff, we should make sure that excessive salaries are curbed and the money used to make casualised staff permanent; instead of scrapping research leave, carve out dedicated opportunities to investigate the political, economic and cultural challenges of pressing issues such as climate change, energy security and AI. 

To save the jobs currently at risk, we need to use institutional reserves, while excessive salaries of vice-chancellors and senior staff need to be cut dramatically; vanity capital expenditure projects should be suspended immediately; marketing budgets and the use of consultants should be scaled right back. More equalised salary bands should be applied across institutions. 

In the longer term, we need to build a radical new settlement that is based on the social and economic benefits of a thriving higher education system. A university education should not be at the discretion of the needs of employers and government. We need to undo the damage that the marketisation of HE has caused in the last decade: to restore free education accessible to all as a vital public good, paid for by a tax on the excessive profits of, for example, UK energy companies; to extend support mechanisms like the Education Maintenance Allowance and 16-19 Bursary Fund to make it easier for marginalised communities to study; to restructure higher education so that it is no longer dependent on casualised and zero-hours contracts; and to abolish the gender and race pay gaps that remain endemic throughout the sector.

Next: Building a movement