UCU tells London Met to get its 'house in order' after damning revelations

Documents released to the Times Higher Education Supplement reveal that London Met was being run 'financially blind' and without any 'reasonable' funding safeguards after the university wildly misreported the number of students completing courses.

LMU has been hit by repayment demands totalling more than £36 million and has responded to the crisis by announcing plans to axe over 550 posts.  The union is furious that the majority of the university's bosses remain in place and will be seeking to ensure that the board of governors stop making decisions based on inadequate or inaccurate information. UCU today repeated its calls for all compulsory job losses to be suspended until a full public inquiry is held into the financial mess.

'These latest revelations are shocking and cannot be swept under the carpet... It is a disgrace that hard working and talented staff are being axed for the failings of senior management.'
Sally Hunt
UCU general secretary

In May MPs suggested that a level of collusion between London Metropolitan University (LMU) and the funding body (HEFCE) allowed the falsified records to pass without proper scrutiny. HEFCE have commissioned consultants KPMG to do a 'lessons learnt' report on its role in the crisis that will be published imminently.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: 'London Met urgently needs to get its house in order. These latest revelations are shocking and cannot be swept under the carpet. It is appalling that crucial decisions are being made on the basis of dodgy information. The full findings of this report and the forthcoming review by KPMG need to be made public for the sake of staff and students. It is a disgrace that hard working and talented staff are being axed for the failings of senior management.  

'Those responsible for the current mess must be held accountable, not the staff, and I will be holding David Lammy to his promise of an independent inquiry. Any inquiry which does not examine closely the full failings at LMU will be a wasted opportunity to provide a brighter future for its beleaguered staff and students. The proposed job cuts would be a disaster for students and the local area.'

LMU has over 34,000 students and is the largest university in the capital. It has a proven track record when it comes to widening participation and has been at the forefront of the government's strategy to open up university to more students from 'non-traditional' backgrounds.

London Metropolitan University – a pioneer for widening participation:

• 97.3% of LMU students come from state schools or colleges (31st highest in the UK)
• 42.9% come from lower social economic groups (26th highest in the UK) 
• 51.9% of students at LMU are mature students (5th highest in the UK)
• There are 3,565 part-time students at LMU (18th highest in the UK).