King's College London and Education Cuts

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON AND EDUCATION CUTS

The CUTS bite deeper and deeper whilst the world gets madder and madder!

Our eldest son, Alexander, recently told us about 3 Professors in Philosophy that are going to be made redundant at King's College, London. One of these Professors teaches logic and is a really excellent teacher, Alex says (of what is, after all, a very difficult subject) - nearly all the students get Firsts in logic with him apparently. King's management is arguing that it wants to terminate 'Computational Linguistics' (a radical new field of philosophy, where IT meets the outer reaches of logic). However, the two philosphers in question do not see themselves as being primarily Computational Linguists, but philosophers within the philosophy department. At the moment, a lot of meetings are being held and many protests are going on, against it all. At least it is good to see staff and students working together in this way, but what a frightful situation.

Following on from this, Graham Coult, the editor of Managing Information then informed me that 22 posts were being cut in Arts and Humanities at Kings; also that the Chair of Palaeography there was going.

Then, Glenn went to the bookshop, Bookmarks and found out about a whole day teach-in that is taking place at King's against the education cuts in general. Publicity information about this is below - we hope to go along.


"TAKE BACK EDUCATION"

Join the teach-in to build the resistance!

King’s College London, 27th February, 11.00am – 4.00pm

Hosted by: King’s UCU, The No Cuts @ King’s Campaign, and the London Education Activists Network

Education is under attack. Up to a third of university funding - £2.5bn – is to be cut, 30 universities could shut down and over 14,000 lecturers may lose their jobs.

Big businesses exert more and more control over the university system. Cuts in student places and higher fees could exclude many people from higher education altogether.


But it doesn’t have to be this way. Education workers are lobbying for strike action, following the victory at Tower Hamlets College. Students are protesting across Europe, organising occupations to stop neoliberal reforms – and taking control of campuses for another kind of education.

This February we will be hosting a day of alternative lectures and tutorials in King’s College London to bring together staff and students to celebrate what education could be – and to prepare for the battles ahead.

Initial line up includes:

Terry Eagleton: literary critic
Michael Rosen: poet, children’s author and education campaigner
Alex Callinicos: lecturer and radical theorist
Juan Carlos Piedra: Justice For Cleaners

Also:

Activists from Ireland and Austria
Education workers who have led successful strikes
Voices from students and campaigns around the country


(Other speakers – to be announced)

Alternative Lectures and Tutorials include:
*The crisis in our universities and the battle for education
* Education for liberation – what could our education look like?
* The corporate takeover of our universities
* How do we fight for free education?
* Building fighting unions
* Education for all – challenging Islamophobia, racism and the points based immigration system
* The tasks ahead – building resistance that can win

London Education Activists Network: http://educationactionlondon.blogspot.com/

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk