University funding 'not working'
The vice chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University has called for the government to increase tuition fees in line with inflation.
Professor Rama Thirunamachandran told the BBC the "funding model for higher education is not working", citing changes in student visa rules and rising costs as reasons why his institution is having to cut costs.
The university is planning to axe up to 400 jobs, and has already cut 148 through a voluntary redundancy scheme.
"This government inherited a sector facing serious financial risk and has taken tough decisions to fix the foundations of higher education," the Department of Education said.
Prof Thirunamachandran said: "The tuition fees which were set in 2013 have only been slightly upgraded. They are worth two thirds of what they were."
Canterbury Christ Church University is also phasing out its English Literature degree after current students graduate.
The vice chancellor said this was necessary because of a lack of student demand, adding "not every university can run every subject when the demand has fallen".
Freya Hodge, a second year English literature and history student, said: "In Canterbury, you've got an abundance of literary legends, like Chaucer, Aphra Benn."
She added: "To now actually get rid of the subject is just a betrayal of the city's legacy."
Craig Potter, the chair of the local branch of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) said the cuts have taken an emotional toll on staff.
"To be under threat of losing their jobs is incredibly hard for everybody," he said.
"I have people come to me at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day in tears, and people having to go off sick at the stress of it all," he said.
The University of Kent is aiming to save nearly £20m this year, mostly through a voluntary redundancy scheme and not filling vacant roles.
It is also phasing out six courses, including health and social care, art history, and philosophy.
Dr Taymaz Azimi, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Kent, said he will be entering a sparse job market when his course ends in 2026.
"Not only do new positions not open, we are losing the existing positions every year," he said.
"So losing your job means really struggling."
In a statement, the University of Kent said: "Sector finances are under severe pressure and, like many other institutions, we have been making wide-ranging changes to our operation to address this and reflect what students and government are looking for from universities."
Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.
Canterbury university axes literature degrees
University of Kent confirms six courses to be axed
University of Kent
Canterbury Christ Church University
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Billie Eilish's brother Finneas says he was tear-gassed during LA anti-ICE protest
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Finneas, the brother of singer Billie Eilish, said he was impacted by the anti-ICE protests in downtown Los Angeles over the weekend. On Sunday, he took to Instagram to describe what was happening around L.A. 'Tear-gassed almost immediately at the very peaceful protest downtown. They're inciting this,' he wrote on his Instagram Story about the clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. The record producer then reposted several Instagram posts slamming the Trump administration and ICE for the federal immigration raids that began on Friday within the region. The raids sparked various protests across the city. Critics say President Donald Trump heightened the tensions by deploying the California National Guard into Los Angeles without permission from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Approximately 300 National Guard members arrived in the city over the weekend. Trump said he authorized 2,000 members to deploy if needed. Both Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass have blamed the president for inciting the chaos over the weekend. 'Donald Trump is putting fuel on this fire. Commandeering a state's National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral. California will be taking him to court,' Newsom said on X. In the meantime, Trump calls his decision a 'great idea.' 'The people that are causing these problems are professional agitators, they're insurrectionists, they're bad people. They should be in jail.' Trump said. In a post to Truth Social, he said both Newsom and Bass should thank him and that the troops were necessary.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Frederick Forsyth: Life as a thriller writer, fighter pilot, journalist and spy
Frederick Forsyth, who has died at the age of 86, wrote meticulously researched thrillers which sold in their millions. A former fighter pilot, journalist and spy, many of his books were based on his own experience. He wove intricate technical details into his stories, without detracting from the lightning pace of his plots. His research often embarrassed the authorities, who were forced to admit that some of the shady tactics he revealed were used in real-life espionage. Frederick McCarthy Forsyth was born on 25 August 1938 in Ashford, Kent. The only child of a furrier, he dealt with loneliness by immersing himself in adventure stories. Among his favourites were the works John Buchan and H Rider Haggard, but Forsyth adored Ernest Hemingway's book on bullfighters, Death in the Afternoon. He was so captivated that - at the age of 17 - he went to Spain and started practising with a cape. He never actually fought a bull. Instead, he spent five months at the University of Granada before returning to do his national service with the RAF. Having spent years dreaming of becoming a pilot, Forsyth lied about his age so he could fly de Havilland Vampire jets. In 1958, he joined the Eastern Daily Press as a local journalist. Three years later, he moved to the Reuters news agency. At Tonbridge School, Forsyth had excelled in foreign languages but little else. Fluent in French, German, Spanish, and Russian, he was a born foreign correspondent. Posted to Paris, he covered a number of stories relating to assassination attempts on the life of France's President Charles de Gaulle, by members of the Organisation de l'Armee Secrete (OAS). The group of ex-army personnel were angered at de Gaulle's decision to give independence to Algeria after many of their comrades had died fighting Algerian nationalists. Forsyth called the OAS "white colonialists and neo-fascists". And he decided that, if they really wanted to kill de Gaulle, they would have to hire a professional assassin. Forsyth joined the BBC in 1965. Two years later, he was sent to Nigeria to cover the civil war that followed the secession of the south-eastern region of Biafra. When the fighting dragged on far longer than had been expected, Forsyth asked permission to stay and cover it. According to his autobiography, the BBC told him "it is not our policy to cover this war". "I smelt news management," he said. "I don't like news management." He quit his job and continued to cover the war as a freelance reporter for the next two years. He chronicled his experiences in The Biafra Story, which was published in 1969. He later claimed that, while in Nigeria, he began working for MI6, a relationship that continued for two decades. He also become friendly with a number of mercenaries, who taught him how to get a false passport, obtain a gun and break an enemy's neck. All these tricks of the trade would be incorporated in a tale of an attempted assassination of President de Gaulle, The Day of the Jackal, which he pounded out in his bedsit on an old typewriter in just 35 days. He spent months trying to get it published but faced a string of rejections. "For starters, de Gaulle was still alive," he said, "so readers already knew a fictional assassination plot set in 1963 couldn't succeed." Eventually, a publisher risked a short print run and sales of the book, described once as "an assassin's manual", took off, first in the UK and then in the US. The Day of the Jackal showcased what would become the traditional hallmarks of a Forsyth thriller. It wove together fact and fiction, often using the names of real individuals and events. The Jackal's forgery of a British passport, using the name of a dead child taken from a churchyard, was perfectly feasible in the days before electronic databases and cross-checking. The tale was made into an award-winning film in 1973, staring Edward Fox as the anonymous gunman. Forsyth followed up his success with The Odessa File, the story of a German reporter attempting to track down Eduard Roschmann - a notorious Nazi nicknamed the "Butcher of Riga" - who is protected by a secret society of former SS men known as Odessa. As part of his research, Forsyth travelled to Hamburg posing as a South African arms dealer. "I managed to penetrate their world and was feeling rather proud of myself," he later said. "What I didn't know was that the (contact) had passed a bookshop shortly after our meeting. And there, in the window, was The Day of the Jackal, with a great big picture of me on the back cover." The film of the book led to the identification of the real "Butcher of Riga", who was living in Argentina - after one of his neighbours went to see it at the local cinema. He was arrested by the Argentinian authorities, but skipped bail and fled to Paraguay. The book also mentioned a hoard of Nazi gold that was exported to Switzerland in 1944. Twenty-five years after publication, the Jewish World Congress discovered this passage and, eventually, located gold valued at £1bn. According to the Sunday Times, Forsyth's third novel, The Dogs of War, drew on his experience of organising a coup in Africa. The newspaper reported that Forsyth had once spent $200,000 hiring a boat and recruiting European and African soldiers of fortune for a raid designed to oust the President of Equatorial Guinea in 1972. The plan was said to have failed when the arrangements broke down and the soldiers were intercepted by the Spanish police in the Canary Islands, 3,000 miles from their objective. Then came Devil's Alternative, in which Britain's first female prime minister, Joan Carpenter, was firmly based on Margaret Thatcher, a politician Forsyth greatly admired. She later appeared, under her real name, in four Forsyth novels. There was a move into biography in 1982 with Emeka, the life story of Forsyth's friend Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the head of state of Biafra during that country's brief independence. In 1984, he returned to the novel with The Fourth Protocol: a complex tale of a Soviet plot to influence the British general election and install a hard-left Labour government. The book so impressed Sir Michael Caine that he persuaded Forsyth to allow a film version, in which the veteran actor starred alongside Pierce Brosnan. In the late 1980s, Forsyth separated from his first wife, the former model Carole Cunningham and was photographed alongside the actress Faye Dunaway. The Negotiator, published in 1991, continued the successful run while The Deceiver, the tale of a maverick but brilliant MI6 agent, was made into a BBC mini-series. After two more thrillers, The Fist of God and Icon, Forsyth took an abrupt detour with The Phantom of Manhattan: a sequel to the Phantom of the Opera, which had been a successful musical. It was not a great success but, in 2010, Andrew Lloyd Webber took elements of it for his musical follow-up to Phantom, Love Never Dies. A second set of short stories, The Veteran, also had mixed reviews but Forsyth bounced back in his usual style with Avenger, a 2003 political thriller and, three years later, The Afghan, which had links with the earlier Fist of God. By now, Forsyth had established a reputation as a broadcaster and political pundit. He was a frequent guest on the BBC's topical debate programme Question Time, as someone who held views on the right of the political spectrum. A committed Eurosceptic, he once derailed former Prime Minister Ted Heath on the programme - after proving that he had indeed, despite his denials, once signed a document agreeing to transfer UK gold reserves to Frankfurt. On turning 70, the pace of his writing began to slow. The Cobra, published in 2010, saw the return of some of the characters from Avenger. In 2013, Forsyth published The Kill List, a fast-moving tale built round a Muslim fanatic called The Preacher, whose online videos encouraged young Muslims to carry out a series of killings. He wrote all his books on a typewriter and refused to use the internet for his research. Ironically, his 18th novel, The Fox - published in 2018 - was a spy thriller about a gifted computer hacker. Forsyth announced it was to be his final book, but he later came out of self-imposed retirement after the death of his second wife, Sandy, in 2024. He said he was writing another adventure, and even suggested a raffle might give someone the chance to name a character after themselves. Having sold the film rights for £20,000 in the 1970s, Forsyth received no payment for Eddie Redmayne's version of The Day of the Jackal when it was re-imagined for television last year on Sky. Well into his 80s, he had long since agreed to stop research trips to far-flung parts of the world - when a trip to Guinea-Bissau left him with an infection that nearly cost him a leg. "It is a bit drug-like, journalism," he admitted. "I don't think that instinct ever dies." It was an instinct that made his life as full and exciting as his thrillers. The Day Of The Jackal author Frederick Forsyth dies Lee Child: Why Forsyth's Jackal changed thriller writing Frederick Forsyth reveals spy past
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Will Williams Elected Next Chair of KPMG's Americas Region
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - June 9, 2025) - KPMG today announced the Americas Board of Directors has elected Will Williams as the next Chair of KPMG's Americas Region, commencing July 1, 2025. Williams will succeed Paul Knopp, who has held the position since 2020. Knopp's term, concluding on June 30, 2025, was distinguished by strong revenue growth and significant regional investments in services, industries, and key technologies. These investments enabled member firm clients to solve their most pressing opportunities and challenges. Additionally, enhanced strategic collaboration between member firms within the region improved client experiences and created professional development opportunities for employees. "Will is a proven leader whose commitment to operational excellence and client service will continue the strong momentum we've achieved in executing our global strategy," said Paul Knopp, Chair of the Americas Region. "Our collective investments in areas such as AI, data and analytics, audit technologies and tax services are making the difference for our people and clients across the entire Americas Region." As Chair of the Americas Region, Williams will join KPMG's Global Board. He brings over 25 years of experience at KPMG. Since 2020, he has served as Vice Chair - Operations for the U.S. firm and as a member of the U.S. Management Committee, overseeing technology, finance, investments, enterprise security, and transformation. During this time, he has also served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Americas Region. "I'm grateful to Paul for his leadership of the Americas Region, which has generated significant momentum in our collective efforts to enhance quality and drive innovation," said Will Williams, Chair-elect of the Americas Region. "Through KPMG's Collective Strategy, we are leveraging the strength of the Americas Region and investing in shared priorities, with an emphasis on AI. We are at a pivotal moment for our profession, and I look forward to working closely with leadership from our global and Americas member firms on creating the firm of the future that is innovative, agile and drives enhanced value to our clients." About KPMG KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited ("KPMG International") operate and provide professional services. "KPMG" is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organization or to one or more member firms collectively. KPMG firms operate in 142 countries and territories with more than 275,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients. For more detail about our structure, please visit KPMG Americas Ltd. is a Bermuda exempted company. KPMG Americas does not provide services to clients. # # # Media Contacts: Ichiro KawasakiSenior Director, Corporate Communicationsikawasaki@ +1 201 307 8640LinkedIn Tami KomiyaManager, Corporate Affairstamikomiya@ +1 571 384 0187LinkedIn To view the source version of this press release, please visit Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
