Dr Beltran has endured two years in prison without conviction simply for [...]]]> UCU is delighted to announce that Dr Miguel Angel Beltran, the university professor imprisoned in Colombia since May 2009 was finally released this Tuesday 7th June, having been declared innocent of the spurious charges of ‘rebellion’ and ‘criminal conspiracy for terrorist purposes’.

Dr Beltran has endured two years in prison without conviction simply for publishing articles and research critical of the Colombian government.

Alongside our sister education unions around the world, UCU has fought hard to demand his release and to defend academic freedom. This fantastic news is a vindication of our efforts and a significant step forward in the struggle for human rights in Colombia.

Dr Beltran was met at the gates of La Picota prison in Bogota on Tuesday by around 200 supporters, including family, academic colleagues and former students. On hearing the verdict Dr Beltran said ‘The truth triumphed, critical thought is not terrorism. They were two difficult years’.

Thank you to every union and every academic, from over 20 countries worldwide, who took part in the campaign. Read more here:  http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2408 and here: http://justiceforcolombia.org/news/article/984/political-prisoner-professor-beltran-finally-absolved-of-all-charges

Signatories include the Nobel prize winner, Sir Richard Roberts and a host [...]]]> Thanks to everyone who has joined the call for the release of Dr Beltran from his imprisonment in Colombia. The University and College Union, together with Justice for Colombia has today submitted to President Santos a letter signed by more than 4000 academics.

Signatories include the Nobel prize winner, Sir Richard Roberts and a host of scholars with international reputations.

While most of the signatories are from the UK, the open letter attracted support from educators in more than 20 countries across the world, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sweden and the USA.

You can see the open letter submitted to President Santos here: http://educationsolidaritynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/4-May-Academics-Open-Letter-to-President-Santos.pdf

To view the complete list of signatories click here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5474

In addition, Dr Beltran received invaluable support from other unions around the world, including the NTEU in Australia, who added their names to the open letter, the GEW in Germany and the NUT in the UK who both wrote letters of protest to the Colombian government. You can see the GEW’s letter here: http://educationsolidaritynetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Carta-Thoene-a-Calderon.pdf

Thanks to all of you for your support. We will update you on any news regarding our colleague in Colombia as soon as we have it.

UCU.

Since our letter to the president, [...]]]> Colombia heard the voice of educators loud and clear last year when 1,000 UK academics wrote to the Colombian president calling for the release of Dr Miguel Beltran. Several unions on the Education Solidarity Network did the same, including the CAUT in Canada and the NTEU in Australia.

Since our letter to the president, Dr Beltran’s trial was postponed following several ireegularities including suspected manipulation of the evidence against him. However, it is due to start again on May 3^rd.

Dr Beltran has published research on the Colombian conflict and is an outspoken critic of the government. It appears that these actions are not tolerated in Colombia. He has been charged with “rebellion”, tortured, detained for 22 months and is currently held in a prison where 90% of the inmates are paramilitaries. He has been deprived of water and medical attention. We want to make a clear statement to President Santos and the people of Colombia that in a free, fair and democratic society, freedom of speech and expression are not optional. Those who avail themselves of such rights are not criminals, they should not be subject to detention, torture and imprisonment.  

TAKE ACTION: UCU is calling on academics across the globe to demand Dr Beltran’s release.

What you can do:

UCU has launched an open letter to President Santos. Academics can add their names by visiting: https://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5474

Alternatively, unions can send their own letters of protest to President Santos, using our letter as a template if they like. 

Please write to President Santos at : olgavallejo@presidencia.gov.co, or at the following postal address: Casa de Nariño, Carrera 8 No.7-26, Bogota, Colombia.

It is crucial that as many people contribute to this campaign as possible. Our last letter generated a significant amount of press coverage in Colombia including on the nation’s largest TV and radio stations. Please circulate this to your networks and encourage members to add their support.

UCU.

The report lists a series of concrete examples of how for-profit higher education is failing:

The University of Phoenix – the nation’s largest for-profit postsecondary education provider [...]]]> In a scathing report, the U.S.-based Education Trust is accusing American for-profit colleges of making out like bandits while students are left with crippling levels of debt.

The report lists a series of concrete examples of how for-profit higher education is failing:

The University of Phoenix – the nation’s largest for-profit postsecondary education provider – collected more than $1 billion in federal Pell Grant aid last year. In 2008, however, its six-year graduation rate was just 9 percent. At individual Phoenix institutions, the highest student-success rate was 33 percent at the New Mexico campus; the lowest rate was just 4 percent at the Cleveland and Wichita campuses.

In 2008, 31 percent of the students attending DeVry University graduated in six years.

The six-year graduation rate at Westwood College was 27 percent in 2008.

The report concludes that for-profit colleges are operating on a business model founded on “systemic failure.”

Firstly, the Browne review recommended removing the [...]]]> UK universities have been rocked in the last month by 40% cuts to public funding, proposals to raise student tuition fees to £9000, to completely marketise the funding base for many subjects and, predictably, to make it easier for US for-profit companies to expand to fill the gaps.

Firstly, the Browne review recommended removing the cap from student fees (they are currently capped at just over £3000), allowing universities to charge whatever they liked. The government has since indicated that it will cap fees at £9000, a move that will still make the UK the most expensive place to study in the world, saddle students with staggering debts and lead to the stratification of provision. UCU said that this represented ‘the final nail in the coffin for an affordable university degree for the vast majority of ordinary families.’: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5058&from=5047&start=11

The other bombshell in the Browne report was the recommendation to remove all public funding from all but a few stretguc priority subjects, making arts and humanities and many social science subjects entirely dependent on student recruitment for their survival. UCU said that this would lead to the closure of departments and whole universities, the overall narrowing of provision and would have a ‘chilling’ effect on innovation. In short, it represents an attack on everyting that universities are supposed to stand for.

Shortly afterwards, the government confirmed its widely anticipated 40%  cuts to university funding, indicating that it intended to enact the recommendations of the Browne report. As the union emphasised, this will have a devastating effect on the sector, leading to a loss of capacity and innovation that will take decades to repair, while betraying generations of young people by shutting them out of higher education: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5066&from=5047

But don’t worry, says the government. All will be well, for for private sector will step in to save the day. As we’ve posted here in the past, US education companies are moving into the UK in a big way and have been lobbying the government for a ‘level playing field’ that would give them access to publicly subsidised loans, public funding, and university title. In short, they want to produce the same conditions in the UK that enabled the astronomical growth of the for-profit sector in the USA. The trouble is, as we have pointed out, this is the high road to the same kind of mis-selling and corruption scandals that have rocked the US for-profit sector recently. We tried to tell the government this in October with the publication of a new report that detailed these problems: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5023&from=5003. But it seems they weren’t listening.