Nottingham university campaign for higher education

We, the undersigned students and staff at the University of Nottingham have no confidence in the policies of the Minister for Science and Higher Education, David Willetts. We call on the government to pause its publication of the White Paper to allow for proper consultation and public debate on its proposed reforms, which have the potential to inflict great and irreversible damage to Higher Education in the UK.

We also strongly support the similar motion of no confidence proposed by the Oxford University Campaign for Higher Education, and urge students and academics across the country to support it as well, by signing the online petition at noconfidence.org.uk.

Why No Confidence?

1) The Governments policy making has been financially chaotic, unsustainable and incompetent. The Treasury budgeted for an average fee of 7500, but now more than two-thirds of Universities want to charge 9000 for some or all courses.

2) The 80\% cut to the HEFCE Teaching grant will leave Universities systematically underfunded even with higher fees.

3) The academic profession in the UK has never been less attractive. The debts incurred to go through both undergraduate and postgraduate study could be as high as 87,000. Money for research is also being cut in real terms and what remains is being focused on the Governments short-term agenda.

4) The introduction of the principles of a competitive market raises the danger of a race to the bottom in academic standards, especially if judgement criteria include only student satisfaction and projected graduate earning power. We also believe that the recent tendency to focus only on the instrumental value of higher education poses a threat to the academic ethos and its associated standards.

5) The licensing of for-profit institutions to award degrees and the advocacy of overseas franchising by existing Universities are a threat to the reputation of the UK University system as a whole.

6) There has been a lack of communication with key actors in the sector on these issues.

Sign The Petition

Sign with Facebook

If you already have an account please sign in, otherwise register an account for free then sign the petition filling the fields below.
Email and the password will be your account data, you will be able to sign other petitions after logging in.

Name (mandatory)

Surname (mandatory)

Email (mandatory)

Choose a password (mandatory)

Privacy in the search engines? You can use a nickname:

City (optional)

Nickname (optional)

Comment

Attention, the email address you supply must be valid in order to validate the signature, otherwise it will be deleted.

I confirm registration and I agree to Usage and Limitations of Services

I confirm that I have read the Privacy Policy

I agree to the Personal Data Processing

Shoutbox

Who signed this petition saw these petitions too:

Sign The Petition

Sign with Facebook

If you already have an account please sign in

Comment

I confirm registration and I agree to Usage and Limitations of Services

I confirm that I have read the Privacy Policy

I agree to the Personal Data Processing

Donate

Help keep Online Petition free!
Please consider making a small donation today. This will allow us to keep Nottingham University Campaign for Higher Education alive and available to a wide audience.

One-time donation

Every cent you give goes toward maintaining the website and the petitions. Even a small contributions helps!
Support the Cause

Goal reached !

100 / 100

Latest Signatures

27 December 2015100. Claire T
I support this petition
11 November 201599. Roy H
I support this petition
02 November 201598. Liam M
I support this petition
19 October 201597. Dr Sarahb
I support this petition
22 September 201596. Peter C
I support this petition
04 July 201595. Katy T
I support this petition
26 April 201594. Angela L
I support this petition
23 January 201593. Theresa T
I support this petition
09 January 201592. Spencer M
I support this petition
08 January 201591. Robbie R
I support this petition
11 November 201490. J Hr
I support this petition
23 October 201489. Adam S
Your UoN Email address [email protected] /* */ Status (e.g. undergraduate/professor) Associate professor Department Geography .
09 October 201488. Richard G
I support this petition
30 September 201487. Ian B
I support this petition
22 August 201486. Dr Shirleyg
I support this petition
29 June 201485. Andrew S
I support this petition
08 June 201484. Nicolas R
I support this petition
12 May 201483. Fabien T
I support this petition
02 October 201382. Faye T
I support this petition
20 September 201381. Philip M
I support this petition
11 September 201380. Catherine D
I support this petition
02 September 201379. Damien S
I support this petition
21 August 201378. Mark Jls
I support this petition
23 July 201377. Wright Bray
I support this petition
13 July 201376. James D
I support this petition
13 June 201375. Carl B
I support this petition
15 January 201374. Robert P
I support this petition