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Lord Adonis |
Opposition grows to academy plan
University College London warned to expect a ‘fight from within’ from staff and students
UNIVERSITY College London has been warned it will face a fight from within over its plans to establish a city academy in Swiss Cottage.
Students and staff said they were opposed to the Bloomsbury university’s attempts to sponsor the new school, currently planned for a site in Adelaide Road.
It has been named as a preferred bidder by Camden Council and is waiting for final approval from the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition.
Students joined lecturers at a demonstration last Wednesday during a visit by government education minister Lord Andrew Adonis, the city academy advocate, sending a defiant message to the provost Professor Malcolm Grant that he could not rely on them to help make the scheme work.
Second year student Jasmina Cenan, who is studying archaeology, said: “I was shocked to find out that the college was sponsoring an academy. I and many of my fellow students are just not convinced it is a good idea. No one has made the case to us that academies are the best way of improving standards in schools, and no one has convinced us that UCL should become involved with a new school in the borough.”
One of UCL’s key ideas is to use the student body as a team of voluntary mentors for secondary school age pupils.
Ms Cenan added: “Students do not believe academies are the way forward and we do not believe the college should be concentrating its resources helping just one school. It should increase the involvement across the board if it is going to strengthen Camden’s secondaries.”
She said as an archaeologist she feared minority topics such as hers would become increasingly sidelined.
“These types of subjects will be seen as being less and less important by academies,” she said.
The college lecturers’ union UCU has also attacked the idea from within. President Simon Renton, representing 1,600 members of staff, said they were opposed not only to UCL becoming involved in an academy but the national policy.
Speaking at the demonstration, he said: “We oppose academies and the involvement of UCL in establishing one. There is a real strength of feeling about this. The people against the academy is a wide-ranging alliance – as well as the University College Union, the National Union of Teachers and Unison all against the idea, the Church of England schools board also say UCL should simply not be doing this.”
The meeting, hosted by Professor Grant, included the Labour MP John Denham and academics from Nottingham and Warwick Universities, who are already working with schools.
The presentation focused on how universities could share their expertise with secondary schools – a key motive behind Professor Grant’s plan.
Professor Grant said: “We are the biggest single employer in the borough with 8,000 staff and 20,000 students. There is a fine family of schools in Camden and we have experience of working with them.
“We have a moral obligation to engage with the community around us and we should share our resources.
“The academy system is a way of doing this.” |
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