Mr. Frank Jones:

I will be brief. The Deputy mentioned rankings. The student to staff ratio has a direct impact on the rankings but it affects much more than that. It affects the entire student experience because it affects the ability of lecturers and other staff to deliver on their contracts. It is very clear that this has a negative impact. The employment control framework I mentioned was in place for very good reason between 2010 and 2014. In 2016, Michael Cush SC conducted a review of precarity, short-term contracts and the use of fixed-term and part-time contracts for lecturers in universities. He made seven recommendations, one of which is that the employment control framework be lifted, allowing the universities the right to hire lecturers directly when necessary, so they would not have to go to the HEA or other organisations for approval. That is fine and dandy if they have the money to hire but they do not. That is why they do not hire lecturers but hire these hourly-paid staff on very poor fixed-term contracts of employment and they renew the fixed-term contracts, leaving us with very little option as trade unions-----