UCU members from Lewisham College protest against cuts in further education Photo: Cat Wiener

Lecturers and other academic staff today held a picket outside Lewisham College as part of a Day of Action organised by the University and College Union (UCU) to defend jobs and education.

£190 million  is being cut from the further education and adult education budgets, with more than £1 billion due to be cut from the higher education budget over the next three years.

FE colleges in London’s inner city, such as Lewisham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Haringey will be particularly hard hit, with 400 jobs due to go across London.

As Theresa Kanneli, UCU Equal Opportunities officer at Lewisham College, told East London Lines, that means 40 jobs facing the axe at Lewisham:

“All the parties are talking about the need to make cuts and those cuts are going to affect us, further education, people’s access to education, jobs…”

Lecturer Madeleine Andrews joined the picket line to voice her concern that those most in need of education will be affected:

“I’m out here to defend education. I love my college the way it is…I don’t think students and vulnerable people should be made to pay for bankers’ mistakes”.

Today’s protest, which saw a large demonstration in central London and protests across the country, was timed, as Theresa emphasised, to focus voters’ minds on the need for education.

“It’s really important when people go out to vote tomorrow that they remember further education and they remember students.”