Hello, this is the second blog that I am writing; this one though is specifically about the HEFCE funding cuts and my part in the campaign to get them stopped.
The other blog which I write is a more general blog and that can be found at http://uk.360.yahoo.com/bty726686
The funding cuts - the start of this was the letter by John Denham, Secretary of State for Universities, stating that £100m was to be shaved off the budget to prevent aspiring students getting what are known as "second first qualifications", that is qualifications at an equivalent or lower level to the ones they have already got, assuming that they have already got degrees.
What Senor Denham forgot to conveniently mention was that this would wipe out the other categories of student which he was trying to encourage, the widening participation students and the lifelong learning students, but hey, what does it matter when you are trying to do something which is politically expedient.
He also conveniently forgot the aspirations of the two universities which are trying to take the sector forward, which Denham would most decimate with his cunning plan - that is to say, the Open University and the University of London, Birkbeck College.
I will publish the links to the funding campaign petition on the 10 Downing Street website and the Facebook group which is in existence; watch out for the next exciting instalment.
Donald Hedges.
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