London Metropolitan University to axe 44 more jobs

Published: 19 November, 2010
by TOM FOOT

LONDON Metropolitan University (LMU) has announced another round of job cuts as the fallout from last year’s financial scandal continues to impact on student life.

Forty-four academic and staff posts are under immediate threat, ac­cording to a university spokeswoman.

She said the redundancies had nothing to do with the coalition government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, instead blaming “historical reasons” including “withdrawal of external funding”.

LMU was ordered to pay back £35 million in funding wrongly claimed by the university between 2005-2008.

The spokeswoman said: “The university proposes to make up to forty four posts redundant from within Information Systems and Services, Faculty of Computing, Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Languages and Educations, The Centre for Academic Professional Development and The Learning Development Unit.”

She added: “There will now be a formal consultation period, during which trade unions and staff affected can make their views known.”

The Tribune revealed in 2008 that the faculty of Humanities, Arts, Languages and Educations was threatened with closure.

The announcement led to a series of strikes and protests following 18 unsettling months at the university in Holloway Road.

Last year, LMU was found to have under-reported its student drop out rates to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).

Over three years, the university claimed just three per cent of students failed to finish their courses – the figure had up until that point been around 30 per cent.

Hefce allocates funding to universities based on how many students complete courses.

An inquiry by the corporate law firm Eversheds, on behalf of LMU, found there was “no evidence that there was any attempt or collusion” by management and no one was sacked.

But the entire board of governors were forced to resign in January 2010 following a government investigation headed by Sir David Melville CBE.

Vice chancellor Brian Roper quit in April 2009 after setting in motion a plan to plug the deficit by axing 500 staff jobs – a quarter of the workforce.

In response, academic unions “greylisted” the university – a worldwide academic boycott never before instigated on a university in this country.

The move forced an end to the mass job cuts proposal and won important concessions for union members.

In a joint statement, LMU University College Union, Unison and the National Union of Students, said: “United, we staff and students fought back – we refused to pay for the incompetence of our old management and their crisis.”