Staff and students at London Metropolitan University will protest from 4.00pm on Monday in their ongoing fight to save over 550 jobs.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) will lobby London Met’s board of governors as they meet for crunch talks at the university’s Moorgate building.
Following inaccurate reporting of the number of students completing courses, the university’s funding was cut by £15 million a year and a further £36.5 million has to be repaid for previous years’ alleged over-funding.
The university’s response to the crisis was to announce plans to axe at least 550 jobs, which equates to 800 staff actually at risk (one quarter of the workforce).
The UCU yesterday repeated its calls for a full independent public inquiry into the financial mess at London’s biggest university.
Despite serious accusations from MPs of collusion between London Metropolitan University (LMU) and the funding body (HEFCE), the government last month reversed its decision to hold an independent inquiry.
On Thursday May 7th UCU members went on strike after the university said it was pushing ahead with a voluntary redundancy scheme that the union argued had no strategy behind it.
Students at the institution have also staged an occupation in support of their lecturers.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘It’s time the management faced up to their errors and stopped punishing the staff for their mistakes. The government must not shirk its responsibility either.
We need a fully independent public inquiry.’
