樱花动漫

Increasing the financial burden on students and learners will damage both further and higher education, Sally Hunt, general secretary of 樱花动漫 will tell delegates at the union's annual congress today.

Clearly setting out the union's opposition to any attempts to increase university tuition fees in next year's review, Sally Hunt will go on to launch a blistering attack on threats to UK tertiary education, which is now the most privatised in Europe.

Her wide-ranging speech on the first afternoon of the three-day conference will urge delegates to help shape 'an alternative vision of education and to impress their values on the minds of public'. She will also address 樱花动漫's responsibilities abroad ahead of the afternoon debate on Palestine.

Sally Hunt will say: 'The landscape in which we work is changing dramatically. Further major reforms of further and higher education to make them increasingly demand led, employer dominated and market driven are underway. The world will not wait for us to get our act together. One statistic tells the story better than I ever could. While public expenditure on post-16 education has risen 6% in ten years, private spending has gone up 80%. With around a third of the system now privately funded, the market is taking over in front of our very eyes. Our system, once the envy of the world, is now the most privatised in Europe.

'I have emphasised again and again that the defence of our profession will be a priority for me in 樱花动漫. Our campaigning work around challenging the market is a defining moment in that defence. We have to put forward an alternate vision of education and to impress our values on the minds of the public.

'The education system we want is one where every student can develop as an individual. One where colleges and universities are communities of learning not simply upmarket training schemes. One where education is recognised to be about personal growth as well as personal achievement. One where people can use study to change direction in their lives.

'We won't create a system like this by increasing the financial burden on students and learners. And that is why 樱花动漫 will challenge any attempt to increase the cap on university fees or increase costs to college learners. And Congress, you won't create a system like this by over working and under paying the life changers at the heart of education - the staff.'

Talking about 樱花动漫's responsibility as the largest post-16 education union in the world, Sally Hunt will say: 'As the largest tertiary union in the world, 樱花动漫 has a unique responsibility to speak out against the oppression of educators. Freedom of thought and the freedom to learn are rights that are at the heart of democratic civil society. As I have noted before, it is no surprise then that those who wish to oppress their citizens often single educators out for the harshest treatment.

'Our international obligation is to provide meaningful solidarity wherever we can, whether to teachers in Columbia in fear of their lives; lecturers in Zimbabwe warned to shut up or face the consequences; or students and staff in Palestine unable to get through checkpoints in order to continue study.'

However, she will also warn against allowing international issues to dominate congress as has happened in the past. She will say: 'I am convinced that our members want us to play this role and highlight the problems our international colleagues face. But we must not forget that our credibility abroad derives in large from our ability to represent members effectively at home.'

• Speech by 樱花动漫 general secretary, Sally Hunt