Senedd protest over college cuts

The protest in Cardiff Bay at further education cutbacks

Around 300 lecturers and students have protested at the Welsh assembly in Cardiff Bay against funding cuts to further education colleges.

The University and College Union (UCU) called on the assembly government to use cash "reserves" to avoid job losses and cuts to courses.

The union said hundreds of jobs were at risk, including 89 at Coleg Sir Gar in Carmarthenshire.

The assembly government said a tight budget had meant "difficult decisions".

The protest at the Senedd attracted college staff and students from around Wales.

The union also organised a lobby of assembly members and presented a petition calling for extra investment.

It said the assembly government had imposed a £3m cut in funding to further education for the academic year.

Guy Stoate, chair of the union's further education committee and a lecturer at Coleg Morgannwg, said: "The assembly government should be protecting jobs in a recession, not adding to the length of the dole queue.

"UCU is proposing a sensible solution that will help save jobs, protect courses and ensure that the help to retrain is there when people need it.

"A recession is not the time to be cutting investment."

Brian Thornton from the Association of Managers in Education, which brought around 10 members including college principals to the protest, said further education was an "easy target" for assembly government cuts.

Protests involving staff and students took place at Coleg Sir Gar, Swansea College and Gorseinon College last week.

Coleg Sir Gar staff said their college's budget had been cut by £1.2m with 89 posts under threat.

Dr David Hunt, chairman of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) at Swansea College, said a cut of over £1m would lead to the loss of popular courses for hundreds of students there.

'Transform learning'

Staff at Neath Port Talbot College also walked out last month over a budget cut.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said the recession had "reinforced the importance of learning, not reduced it".

"We strongly believe in the power of education to change people's lives and education will be central to our ability to come out of recession," she said.

A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: "A tight budget has meant difficult decisions. We are taking forward policies to transform learning to make better use of public money.

"Sixth form funding will see a slight increase Wales-wide. FEIs (further education institutions) will see a decrease of around 1% - with substantial new funding to respond to the recession available to colleges.

"There is considerable variation between LEAs (local education authorities), schools and colleges with volume of learning the main determining factor."

But Conservative education spokesman Paul Davies said it was "utter madness" to be cutting back in the sector, which was needed to retrain thousands of redundant workers.

"These reckless cuts at a time of deepening recession undermine efforts to develop a skilled workforce, cost jobs, and prevent people from reaching their full potential," he said.

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