“In sponsoring an academy in Camden, UCL is honouring its core commitments to inclusiveness and widening participation.”
SO GUSHED the UCL website in July 2007, celebrating news that College is to get its own privatised high school in Camden. However, recent media coverage has painted a rather different picture. UCL Provost Malcolm Grant’s rosy vision of “inclusiveness” hasn’t stopped College hiding vital details from parents and excluding the views of UCL students. College’s claim to be “widening participation” has come under heavy criticism when it was revealed that the academy would force two special needs schools to merge and a successful school for deaf children to close.
Nice carpets
Until recently UCL students have been completely excluded from College’s plans for the Camden academy (see Cheese Grater issue 18). Despite vocal opposition to the academy, the closest College has come to consultation with students has been a ‘Student Focus Group’ which offered little more than the chance to pick out the colours of the carpets. There has certainly been no suggestion that students should be able to have a say in whether UCL’s sponsorship of the academy goes ahead or not. The ‘wealth’ of information available on the Union website, posted by Education Officer Ed Steward, is just a regurgitation of College propaganda for the academy. Students were also directed to fill out an online survey designed by College that was clearly aimed at the more general public. A motion to establish an official stance in opposition to the academy was defeated at Union Council and since then there has been not a whisper on the subject. Which is strange, especially in light of the particularly damaging press about UCL’s “backroom deals” to secure sponsorship of the academy.
College coup
Two ongoing judicial reviews (one against Camden Council, the other against the Secretary of State) have been brought to the High Court by furious parents who accuse UCL of bullying Camden councillors into giving them the bid and forcing Camden Council to break the law by not opening the matter to competition. Details of UCL’s bid were not disclosed to the public, with offers from the Church of England and an education charity being ignored out of fear that UCL would lose interest. Indeed UCL made it explicitly clear that it would be unlikely to continue with the project if it had to compete with other investors. This would have scuppered plans by Lib Dem councillors who aim to fast-track building work at the academy site ready for the next local election. All’s well that ends well then, eh?
Well, not quite, because some local residents are poised to lose out in a big way. Frank Barnes School for the Deaf and the Jack Taylor Special School are understandably upset at the idea of being bulldozed to make space for an institution that may not cater for pupils with learning difficulties. Parents at the Holborn and St Pancras Secondary School Campaign are also angry, since building an academy in Swiss Cottage would leave no funding available for another, much-needed, school south of Euston Road. A spokesperson asked “can you really justify spending over £25 million on a school for children who might otherwise go to private schools, when the south of the borough’s children…are left with so little?”
Stumbling through
And it’s not just UCL students and Camden parents who have been critical of the academy. Lecturers at UCL have long opposed it, with the UCL branch of the University and College Union calling it “elitist”, “undemocratic” and “unnecessary”. History lecturer Simon Renton commented last year that UCL UCU “had serious doubts over whether the management team at UCL could spare the time and energy required to run another academic institution when they were stumbling over the running of an institution they did know about.”
Swiss cheese
So what exactly does College have to gain from the academy, apart from the resentment and alienation of staff, students and Camden residents? Perhaps it would give Professor Grant the power to fast track gifted students into UCL through his own pet secondary school? In all fairness, maybe Grant truly believes that the move will widen participation, even if the academy is being built in an area about as diverse as a cheese sandwich. 60 percent of the population over 16 have a degree, and nearly three quarters are white. In contrast, 83 percent of children at one school in the south of the borough speak English as a second language. Fortunately for Grant, plans for the academy are now at such a late stage that only a High Court ruling could put a stop to them. If the court rules against UCL, College will lose out on the chance for a valuable PR boost. If the court rules in favour of UCL, Camden could lose out on a whole lot more.