70 education jobs to go and £30 million project shelved
Last updated at 21:45, Sunday, 28 June 2009
Education in Cumbria has been dealt a devastating double blow with a £30 million college transformation plan shelved and more than 70 university jobs set to go.
The separate setbacks affecting Carlisle College and the University of Cumbria emerged last night.
College chiefs must go back to the drawing board and put together ideas for a much cheaper revamp for their Victoria Place base in the hope that it can win support when fresh funding becomes available.
Barrow’s Furness College was one of only 13 out of 180 rebuilding projects across the country to win approval under a Learning and Skills Council (LSC) programme.
It will, however, only get some of the £48 million it was hoping for.
A freeze was put on all further education college bids across the country earlier this year when it was announced the LSC had been hit by huge demand. A Government review was launched to discover what went wrong and strict criteria were drawn up to prioritise remaining projects.
The LSC yesterday awarded cash to schemes deemed to make the biggest impact on students, employers and communities.
Carlisle College principal Moira Tattersall has written to her staff and governors, telling them they had not made the final list.
She wrote: “Obviously this is a disappointment but the dialogue now begins on putting forward an alternative, more modest scheme which hopefully can be supported in the next round for 2011 builds.
“We will be working closely with the LSC on this, who have pledged their support to help colleges draw up a revised strategy. This will include short to medium term accommodation needs as well as a longer term strategy.”
Despite bitter disappointment, Mrs Tattersall believes there are fresh opportunities.
She said: “It does give us an opportunity to review priorities for space, specialisms and support facilities, particularly in light of our increasing 16-19 numbers and a changed economic landscape.”
Staff and technology had already switched from parts of the aging Victoria Place campus into temporary accommodation, making way for building work to start once funding had been secured.
Meanwhile, at the University of Cumbria, 73 people are due to take voluntary redundancy in a move that will save almost £2 million.
More than 100 employees applied after bosses revealed in February they needed to shave £2.56million from the wage bill.
University leaders and unions have also opened talks as a review of generous terms and conditions is launched in a bid to stave off the risk of further redundancies in the future.
They are among a raft of cost-cutting measures being explored as the university looks to secure its long-term sustainability.
A freeze on recruitment is now in place apart from in exceptional cases, departments are being restructured and non-pay budgets are being cut by five to 10 per cent this year.
The cuts see the staff bill go down to £53.25 million, equating to 64 per cent of the university’s income. This could be cut further to 60 per cent.
Staff have also been told that the university will still have to meet the costs of the latest ongoing national pay negotiations.
It is hoped the moves will help the fledgling university secure financial stability and allow it to invest in new academic areas as it develops.
Acting vice-chancellor Neil Harris, in a letter to the university’s 1,700 employees, said: “I realise that meeting the challenges will not be easy and will without doubt affect us all in some way or another. It will mean taking tough and unpopular decisions at times.”
First published at 09:02, Saturday, 27 June 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
How much money has the uni of Cumbria wasted on unjustified legal actions against previous staff? How many managers were promoted without merit? The total sum of the different parts does not make for a better university. We were much better off before the take-over of Brampton Road campus. Now we are a second rate university and will continue to be so for many years to come.
Have your say
John Smith is correct in his comments. The publicly available accounts for the uni show a whopping loss of over £8 million pounds in its first year - thats almost £22,000 a day lost of taxpayers money! If this was a bank the directors would be sacked.
Posted by Kevin Joilter on 1 July 2009 at 13:35