Bournemouth & Poole College is backing the national Love Our Colleges campaign by hosting a week of activities including joining a march in London.
Love Our Colleges Week runs from Monday 15 October to Friday 19 October as a way to showcase the work that colleges put in every day, from teaching students basic skills to lifelong learning. It also aims to highlight a reduction in funding for students once they turn 16. The Love Our Colleges campaign is calling on the government to increase the funding for 16-19 year-olds by five per cent a year for five years.
Events planned during the week at the Bournemouth & Poole College’s Poole and Lansdowne sites includes staff writing to their local MPs and contacting local employers to support the campaign, posts throughout the week on the College’s social media pages, and engagement with local community groups.
Diane Grannell, the principal of Bournemouth & Poole College, and members of the College’s Students’ Union will be joining a march through the streets of London on Wednesday (17OCT) to protest against cuts to further education funding for students aged over 16.
Diane said: “A recent study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that spending on further education for young people has been one of the few areas of education to see cuts since 2010, falling by eight per cent in real terms between 2010/11 and 2017/18 while over that same period, costs have risen quite significantly.
“Clearly further education has borne a disproportionate burden of austerity and we are now at the point where cuts are impacting harmfully on students and staff across the country. I will be joining the march because I do not believe that the facts of the situation are in any way acknowledged by the government.”
Tom Collins, president of the Bournemouth & Poole College Students’ Union, said that they are proud to be joining hundreds of other college students at the march in London.
Tom added: “We feel that it is really important to back the Love Our Colleges campaign and show support to colleges up and down the country who work tirelessly to help each young person to reach their full potential. I am extremely proud to be a student at Bournemouth & Poole College, and I would like to ensure that many others can benefit from this experience for years to come.”
Nick Jones, a physics and geography lecturer and the UCU branch secretary at Bournemouth & Poole College, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to support a national campaign against cuts to student funding. We hope to lead by example and demonstrate to our students how passionately we feel about throwing our weight behind this campaign.”
The Love Our Colleges campaign is a partnership between the Association of Colleges (AoC), National Union of Students (NUS), Association of College and School Leaders (ASCL), University and Colleges Union (UCU), Unison, GMB, TUC and National Education Union (NEU).
David Hughes, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Every single day colleges like Bournemouth & Poole College provide a world class education and transform the lives of millions of people. Love Our Colleges Week is an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant things that go on and a chance to showcase the brilliant staff that make it possible. It is simple, if we want a world-class education system then we need to properly invest in it.”
For more information go to thecollege.co.uk or call 01202 205205.