22,000 staff risk losing their jobs if the government presses ahead with plans to cut 25% more from already slashed HE budgets, according to UCU research published in July: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4736&from=4725&start=11
This comes at the same time as news that 200,000 young people will miss out on a university place this year as a result of cuts already made and that the government is encouraging young people to ‘aim lower’ in the future: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4988&from=4775
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt has warned the government that “Other countries are increasing the number of graduates to compete in a high-skill knowledge economy, yet our government seems intent on doing the opposite. It is not scaremongering to talk about a lost generation of learners.”
http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=4749&from=4725
It is also this context of public austerity that is accelerating the drive toward using the private sector: http://educationsolidaritynetwork.org/2010/08/uk-academics-slam-privatisation-of-universities-as-bpp-becomes-university-college/
