LONDON: The UK’s Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, has been accused of “punching down” over plans to cut spending on universities and teaching in London, as part of the government’s “levelling up” program to redistribute funds outside the capital to other parts of England.
University bosses suggested that plans to lower a grant for London-based teachers would cost them £64 million ($88.5 million), and lead to a cut of over 1,000 jobs, harming London’s position as a global education hub, with some chiefs warning of the impact to global health care development.
There have also been suggestions that the capital’s transport, housing, council and other services could lose funds as part of the reforms.
Education in London has a higher level of funding given that the overall costs of providing services in the UK capital are 14.1 percent higher on average.
Prof. David Phoenix, vice-chancellor of London South Bank University, said: “London weighting was introduced 100 years ago to bring fairness into funding of public services and rightly applies to most public servants in the capital.
“If there isn’t some central contribution to the higher costs of operating in London, there is less funding left to spend on student support than is the case outside London.
In a letter sent to the Office for Students, Williamson stated: “The levelling-up agenda is key to this government, and we think it is inconsistent with this to invest additional money in London providers, the only such regional weighting that exists in the grant.”
But Dr. Diana Beech, CEO of London Higher, which represents more than 40 London universities and colleges, said: “For London, the government’s brutal plan is less about levelling up and more about levelling down.
“Many of London’s institutions are world-leading, attracting the brightest and best from across the globe, while others are bedrocks in their local boroughs, offering a desperately needed lifeline for people from some of the most deprived wards in the UK.
“To underfund London’s ‘big names’ threatens to damage the city’s status as a global higher education powerhouse,” she added.
Twickenham MP Munira Wilson, meanwhile, wrote to Michelle Donelan, universities minister, to warn of the impact of the cuts on students from ethnic minority backgrounds.
“The removal of London weighting will not ‘level up’ the country, it will deepen disadvantage and seeks to level down London,” she said.
Prof. Alice Gast, president of Imperial College London, said: “The pandemic has shown that London’s great universities are indispensable to Britain and the world, with advances in epidemiology, virology, vaccinology, testing and health care. Any cuts hamper our crucial work and threaten Britain’s competitiveness.”
Prof. Jenny Higham, principal of St. George’s, University of London, added: “As a specialist provider for the next generation of health care professionals and scientists, this change will result in a recurrent annual loss of £1.7 million. We operate on small margins; this deficit represents almost all our surplus earmarked for reinvestment in educational and research facilities.”
UK government accused of ‘punching down’ over London education cuts
https://arab.news/2hkxg
UK government accused of ‘punching down’ over London education cuts
- Government claims moves will help “level up” other parts of UK
- University chiefs cite impact to global healthcare development from loss of money
Bangladesh halts controversial relocation of Rohingya refugees to remote island
- Administration of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina spent about $350m on the project
- Rohingya refuse to move to island and 10,000 have fled, top refugee official says
DHAKA: When Bangladesh launched a multi-million-dollar project to relocate Rohingya refugees to a remote island, it promised a better life. Five years on, the controversial plan has stalled, as authorities find it is unsustainable and refugees flee back to overcrowded mainland camps.
The Bhasan Char island emerged naturally from river sediments some 20 years ago. It lies in the Bay of Bengal, over 60 km from Bangladesh’s mainland.
Never inhabited, the 40 sq. km area was developed to accommodate 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the cramped camps of the coastal Cox’s Bazar district.
Relocation to the island started in early December 2020, despite protests from the UN and humanitarian organizations, which warned that it was vulnerable to cyclones and flooding, and that its isolation restricted access to emergency services.
Over 1,600 people were then moved to Bhasan Char by the Bangladesh Navy, followed by another 1,800 the same month. During 25 such transfers, more than 38,000 refugees were resettled on the island by October 2024.
The relocation project was spearheaded by the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year. The new administration has since suspended it indefinitely.
“The Bangladesh government will not conduct any further relocation of the Rohingya to Bhasan Char island. The main reason is that the country’s present government considers the project not viable,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Sunday.
The government’s decision was prompted by data from UN agencies, which showed that operations on Bhasan Char involved 30 percent higher costs compared with the mainland camps in Cox’s Bazar, Rahman said.
“On the other hand, the Rohingya are not voluntarily coming forward for relocation to the island. Many of those previously relocated have fled ... Around 29,000 are currently living on the island, while about 10,000 have returned to Cox’s Bazar on their own.”
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them crossed to neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military. Today, about 1.3 million of them shelter in 33 camps in the coastal Cox’s Bazar district, making it the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Bhasan Char, where the Bangladeshi government spent an estimated $350 million to construct concrete residential buildings, cyclone shelters, roads, freshwater systems, and other infrastructure, offered better living conditions than the squalid camps.
But there was no regular transport service to the island, its inhabitants were not allowed to travel freely, and livelihood opportunities were few and dependent on aid coming from the mainland.
Rahman said: “Considering all aspects, we can say that Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char is currently halted. Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, only one batch of Rohingya was relocated to the island.
“The relocation was conducted with government funding, but the government is no longer allowing any funds for this purpose.”
“The Bangladeshi government has spent around $350 million on it from its own funds ... It seems the project has not turned out to be successful.”
