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Students protest against staff cuts at University of Creative Arts in Rochester

By: Rachel Dixon

Published: 15:04, 09 May 2019

Updated: 15:04, 09 May 2019

Students are rallying against £5million cuts to their university funding.

A group of students from the University of the Creative Arts in Rochester, donned slogan tops, waved banners and shouted chants to stop staff cuts.

They felt let down as reduced in staff could lead to less specialised teaching.

University of Creative Arts students protest against student cuts (9959237)

Madeleine Goddard is a first year student on the highly specialised Atelier course.

She said: "I'm on the only course of it's kind, its so well known, people in the fashion industry ask for us personally.

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"The staff are so dedicated, so are the students who come back and teach us.

Maddy Goddard, first year atelier student (9959253)

"The stuff we learn, we won't learn that anywhere else.

"If we lose the staff the course won't be what it was.

"It feels like we're not getting what we deserve it will hugely effect the quality of our teaching they want to be here."

Students drew on their practice garments as their banners were torn down for a university open day (9959233)

Mature student Sian McClaren who studies photography said: ""I've had to start all over again on my course because of the cuts, i was doing silver smithery and they took away the whole course without notice.

"Now I'll have to pay four years worth and I'm not even doing the course I wanted to.

"It's the second year they have done cuts and I've just had enough.

A group commandered the hallways at the uni and chanted 'stop staff cuts'. (9959256)

"It's more money going down the drain, and they're always telling us at the last minute towards the end of the academic year.

"We feel if you're going to do staff cuts we (students) should be involved from the beginning to the end.

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"Most importantly we want to know our degree is good value for money.

"We want the right staff to be here to teach us, to be treated well and kept motivated.

"We want UCA to know students have a voice and they need to start listening to us."

Head of communications and engagements at UCA, Angela Chadwick said: "The UK higher education sector is facing unprecedented uncertainty, with the outcomes of Brexit and the Augur review likely to impact significantly on how we operate in the future.

"Added to this, we are facing challenging home recruitment conditions, increased staffing and other operating costs and increased pension costs.

"As a consequence, UCA is taking steps to protect its financial resilience and long-term sustainability, and its ability to continue investing in the student experience.

"This will involve identifying areas where we can make efficiency savings and reviewing our staffing structure."

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