Published: 17 August, 2012
by TOM FOOT

UNION chiefs have warned a university is “hell bent” on privatis­ation after it announced plans to sell off almost all of its services to a consultancy firm.

London Metropolitan University bosses have revealed a massive £75million outsourcing bonanza, igniting a furious row with staff.

Max Watson, chairman of the London Met branch of Unison, representing sup­port staff at the univer­sity, said: “Our manage­ment appears to be hell bent on deeply damaging our univer­sity’s reputa­tion and risk perman­ently scarring already bad industrial relations with the ideologically-driven privatisation of London Met.”

But a London Met spokeswoman said the university was develop­ing a “pioneering approach to improving services by investing in our people, reducing cost and putting the university on a sustain­able financial path”.

The five-year contract is to run IT, library and student management, consultancy and careers advice departments. BT, Capita and the Indian-based Wipro are on the shortlist of companies hoping to take advantage of vice chancellor Mal­colm Gillies’ vision of sharing services between universities.

Changes to the tax system introduced by the government earlier this year allow VAT to be clawed back by universities that share services through a single private provider.

It means London Met can make huge savings and opens the door for a potential fire sale of buildings.

Unions fear staff numbers will be cut.

In July, Mr Gillies said there was no reason for universities to “feather-bed” staff costs if “we cannot provide them cheaper than private institutions”.

Mr Watson said: “Gillies should be listening to his own staff, who desper­ately want to improve our service delivery but don’t want to be decimated further by IT consultants and global outsourcing companies.”