Update on London Met Occupation ( see http://wearelondonmet.wordpress.com ) :

All the support has been really really touching. Thank you for all your love and solidarity.

It is important to stress what is going on…

In case you’re unaware, the University plans to cut 70% of the courses being offered at London Met. This is a clear, ideological attack on Higher Education. The Government’s decision to cut the HE budget by 40% is having very real, and devastating effects on the ground. For somewhere like London Met that is heavily subsidised, the impact is obviously worse. People’s lives, both students and staff, are currently being turned upside-down. Hundreds of redundancies are in process.

But it’s interesting, because the courses that are being cut include History, Philosophy, Performing Arts, Languages, Trade Union Studies and Carribean Studies. Students choose to come to London Met to do these courses because of the fantastic tuition offered on these courses. They each have a long and rich tradition at this institution and it is a scandal that the University plans to axe them completely. It is our understanding that no other institution in the UK even offers Carribean Studies.

The message is very clear. London Met as we know it is changing. It will become increasingly business-orientated in its delivery of education as well as its educational offer. It will not provide the broad range of subjects to its applicants any longer. You will have a choice of 160 and that’s it. Instead of using its current diversity to contribute to the vision of being ‘Proud to be London Met’ and as a marketing tool, it’s likely that the proposed cuts will do the opposite. Deleting courses that attract students to an institution does not make any financial sense!

These cuts are therefore ideological, not logical. This is a time of real and severe crisis at London Met. It is important that people get behind this campaign and come down in person to support.

On Saturday there will be a ‘Teach-in’, a day of Alternative Education. This is the first event of its kind at London Met, and will be a key moment to co-ordinate and mobilise a national campaign. We really need to make this massive.

http://wearelondonmet.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/occupation-still-going-strong/