I welcome the spirit and passion with which people signed the petition to defend trade union education at Ruskin College (Letters, 5 July). Sadly, the information in the petition is misleading. The staff concerned took voluntary redundancy. Colleagues teaching on the trade union courses, along with their national union, entered a process of “meaningful consultation”, the outcome of which states: “Terms of settlement have been reached between Ruskin College and the UCU members at risk of redundancy that are acceptable to all parties.” Despite several years of government cuts and financial challenges, we have not closed a single trade union education short course. We are still running the international labour and trade union studies BA, and are still recruiting for our new MA in global labour and social change, which will run from October 2017. Ruskin College is fully engaged in collaboration with its trade union partners. We deliver training to over 2,000 reps and officers, and unions are very well represented on our council and governing body.
Rather than engaging in discussion with our friends and comrades in the letters pages of the media, I would welcome a meeting with the senior politicians and trade union leaders who signed the petition, to work with us to ensure we continue to offer working-class education for the next 118 years.
Paul Di Felice
Principal, Ruskin College Oxford
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