Education Solidarity Network » international

New letter calls for Colombian academic’s release

ucu campaigns — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:45:37 +0000

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.

Global privatisation of tertiary education – UNESCO report highlights threat to staff

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:50:56 +0000

A report by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has illuminated the extent of the private sector’s takeover of higher education across the world. The report claims that 30% of global HE is now provided by private providers. It also says that private sector HE ‘is run mostly on a business model, with power and authority concentrated in boards and chief executives. Faculty hold little authority or influence and students are seen as customers.’ They also make the key point that private providers drive down costs, partly because they rely on casualised academics.

UNESCO’s report – A new dynamic: private higher education (.pdf)

Unions sign historic international deals to protect academic freedom and staff conditions

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:21:53 +0000

Half a million academics from around the world have joined forces to create a series of new international agreements that will help safeguard academic standards at home and abroad.

Developed from an initiative led by the UK’s University and College Union, unions from North America, Europe, Australasia and Africa sign deals at an international conference – Challenging the global market in education – held at the Institute of Education in London. The agreements make specific references to protecting academic freedom and monitoring the work of private companies in higher education.

The unions are concerned at a growing international market in tertiary education that has seen universities in the UK, America, Australia and Canada open lucrative campuses in the Middle East and East Asia, and say they will use the agreements to hold institutions to account for their overseas ventures.

Signatories will report abuses like those at the Singapore campus of Australia’s James Cook University, where a lecturer was suspended and dragged before a court of law for wearing a pro-democracy t-shirt. The conference will commit unions to discouraging staff and the academic community from working and sharing research with institutions with bad overseas records.

The agreements will also allow the unions to share intelligence and work on joint campaigns against private companies who are looking to set up public-private partnerships with universities to recruit international students. The unions oppose the creation of a two-tier workforce in higher education and believe that in-house alternatives carry far less risk to the reputation, academic standards and financial well-being of universities. The private firm, INTO, for example, has been overwhelmingly rejected by staff at every UK university that has been polled on whether or not the institution should work with the company.

Building international solidarity: A multilateral international agreement to defend education against global marketisation