Consultation: | Young Greens AGM 2020 |
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Agenda item: | C Resolutions of Executive Committee Priorities (Closed 18th July) |
Proposer: | Rosie Rawle (Oxfordshire) |
Status: | Published |
Submitted: | 07/19/2020, 00:07 |
C3: Ditch Corporate Financing of Universities
Summary
Over the last two decades, large corporations have played an increasing role in financing our universities and influencing our education. This is likely to rise as UK universities face increasing financial difficulties in the face of the Coronavirus crisis and are forced to look for new income streams. From the likes of BP, Shell and Exxon Mobil investing in longer term energy research, to Coca-cola investing in studies on health science and sugar intakes, these companies have proven that their investments are creating knowledge formation based upon their own unaccountable private interests. This must come to an end as we fight for free and fair education for all. This motion proposes that the Young Greens launch a new campaign across England and Wales to build power on our campuses and demand our universities ditch their corporate financiers.
Resolution Text
Notes:
UK Higher Education Institutions are estimated to face a £2.5 billion loss
in tuition fee income due to the impact of Coronavirus (UCU, 2020a). At
the same time, the UK government has denied a multi-billion pound bailout
requested by UK universities (Guardian, 2020).
Owing to neoliberal education reforms that have occurred in the last two
decades, government funding to the Higher Education sector has been
significantly reduced, and resulted in a funding model significantly
propped up by private investment (UCU, 2020b).
Much of this rising private investment has been in the form of fees paid
by students, but also comes from investment in private companies.
Increasingly, this has been done through the financing of investment
through the private sector, using variants on the Private Finance
Initiative (PFI), and now also through the use of public-private
partnerships (PPPs). (UCU, 2020b)
In recent years, private investment has played an increasingly significant
role in the field of university research. Between 2014-15, 4% of UK
university research income was received from businesses, and 10,859
research contracts were established with large companies (UUK, 2016).
A number of UK universities have deep connections with the fossil fuel
industry in the form of long-term research collaborations. In 2009, Shell,
BP and Exxon Mobil spent 1.4 billion on research and development, which
was 13 times the energy research budget of UK Research Councils (Lander,
2013).
Corporate Watch and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have identified
numerous ways in which UK universities have established partnerships,
sponsorships and other financial agreements with companies and
institutions complicit with Israel's occupation of Palestine (Corporate
Watch, 2019).
It was recently revealed that Coca-Cola funded research institutes through
universities in the USA to suppress findings in health science on sugar
intakes in beverages (Cambridge, 2017).
Believes:
UK universities should not be forced to attract private investment in
order to remain financially sustainable in the current crisis, and that
the state should fund and protect our Higher Education Institutions.
When swathes of funding for research and education is dependent on the
ability to secure private finance, this will only increase instability in
the sector, and make more and more core funding dependent on the short-
term training needs and interests of private companies.
The influence of private companies investing in education threatens the
independence of academic research and learning, resulting in knowledge
creation that is primarily based on the interests of corporations
That independent and rigorous academic research is an indispensable tool
in the struggles for climate justice, equality, and human rights.
That education is first and foremost a public good and should be free and
accessible to all throughout all our lifetimes.
That the Young Greens is well placed to campaign on this issue in UK
universities, as the most radical political youth wing across England and
Wales, with a growing base of active and skilled Young Greens societies
and student activists.
Resolves:
To mandate the Executive Committee to work in collaboration with the Green
Students Committee to design and deliver a new, grassroots campaign to
build student power on campuses and leverage this to ditch corporate
financing of universities.
Cambridge (2017) Contracts give Coca-Cola power to ‘quash’ health research.
CBI (2018) Higher skilled roles rise, as skills gap grows.
Corporate Watch (2019) The role of British universities in supporting Israel’s
demolitions of Palestinian homes
Guardian (2020) Government refuses multi-billion pound bailout for universities.
UCU (2020a) Impact of Covid-19 on university finances.
UCU (2020b) Fighting privatisation in tertiary education.
UUK (2016) University Funding Explained.
Supporters
- Tom Hazell (Oxfordshire Green Party)
- Sarah Sharp (Bristol)
- Ellen Parry (North Surrey)
Likes
- Annabelle Van Dort
- Robert Nixon
- George Morris
- Ria Patel
- Dylan Lewis-Creser
Comments