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Backer will go head to head with city academy opponents
University says it cannot ignore ‘area of urban disadvantage’ on its doorstep
A POTENTIAL sponsor of a new city academy in Swiss Cottage will face critics at a public meeting.
Malcolm Grant, provost at University College London, one of two institutions which have admitted publicly that they have discussed sponsorship with Camden Council, is booked to join a panel discussion at Haverstock School in Chalk Farm on March 5.
He was invited to the meeting by Camden branch of the Campaign for State Education, a lobby group which opposes city academies.
Mr Grant has suggested that UCL is raising funds to sponsor a new academy and has inevitably been linked to the council’s plans to use government funding to open a school in Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage. Education chiefs are adamant that they have at least to consider using city academy sponsorship to complete the project.
The Institute of Education has also expressed interest in working with the council on a sponsorship arrangement.
Mr Grant told a recent edition of the university’s student magazine that UCL had a responsibility to address a drop in the number of students taking science. The new academy could be geared towards that subject.
Mr Grant said: “We can’t overcome this shortfall simply by ensuring we take high achievers from the state system as students at UCL. We should also see if we can support the teaching within schools so as to bring up levels of attainment overall.
“We are proud of being a world-class institution in a global city, yet we are sited on the edge of an area of significant urban disadvantage. I don’t think we should turn our backs on that.”
UCL is understood to have been in discussions with private companies in order to raise enough money to finance a deal with the council.
Mr Grant added: “The original model of sponsorship by wealthy individuals has some obvious flaws. But a model in which sponsorship is by a world-class university is an exciting idea.
“We would expect to be backed financially by a firm or an individual, but with them as effectively a sleeping partner.”
Camden Labour MPs Glenda Jackson and Frank Dobson are due to feature on the panel. Mr Dobson has previously welcomed help from UCL but argued that it should not be in the form of privately funding a new school.
Education chiefs at the Town Hall, however, have hinted that sponsorship from an institution like UCL would be preferred to a deal with a private company.
Conservative schools chief Councillor Andrew Mennear said he had not seen concrete plans from UCL.
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