The £4.6bn university ‘vanity project’ splurge
Bosses ‘wasting huge sums on shiny buildings’
UNIVERSITY bosses will splurge billions of pounds on ‘wasteful vanity projects’ instead of improving the quality of teaching on courses, it was claimed.
institutions plan to increase capital expenditure by 36 per cent this year to an ‘eye-watering’ £4.6billion, said the University and College Union.
it added that ‘much’ of this will be spent on programmes that ‘do not benefit students and staff’.
it comes as vice-chancellors yesterday called for tuition fees to be raised even higher – despite the average person completing their
‘Treat staff as shock absorbers’
studies with £46,000 of debt. they want students to pay several thousands more each year, but still expect fees to be far below the £24,000-a-year average paid by those from abroad. One professor suggested around £12,000.
Bosses warned the £9,250 paid by UK students, which has been frozen for a decade, is forcing them to take on an ever-increasing number of foreign applicants from countries such as China and india.
sir David Bell, vice-chancellor at the University of sunderland and a former permanent secretary at the Department for Education, told the sunday times: ‘You cannot expect to run universities on a fee level of £9,250 a year, which by 2025 will be worth around £6,000 in real terms because of inflation.’
the UCU report, which is released today, cites Glasgow Caledonian among those which have allegedly embarked on imprudent spending.
Of the 129 students enrolled on degrees at the new York satellite of the institution, only 77 have graduated since it was launched nearly eight years ago, the Daily record revealed in February. the university gave £21.4million in loans to the campus. Meanwhile, reading University drastically scaled back its Malaysia campus in 2019 and closed some courses to turn it into a ‘sustainable operation’ after multi-million losses, UCU claimed.
accounts showed a £27million bill for setting up and operating the campus, stretching back to 2011, which pushed the institution as a whole into the red to the tune of £20million, reported times Higher Education.
UCU has called for a portion of capital expenditure to be ‘diverted’ to raise pay, bring staff on to permanent contracts and restore pension benefits. General secretary Jo Grady also said students want valuable time with staff and investment in mental wellbeing services rather than ‘big new shiny buildings’.
she added: ‘if universities continue to treat their staff as shock absorbers to vanity and wasteful building projects then we will call action.’ the union is locked in a bitter dispute with universities over pay and pensions, and strikes may take place across campuses in november.
the University of reading, said: ‘after the restructure of the Malaysia campus, it is now in a much stronger financial position.’ Glasgow Caledonian University said its Us campus will see ‘a rise in the number of students being recruited, and graduating, in the months and years ahead’.