On Friday 22nd November our members in the Hastings LRC were told that further cuts are planned. These will have an effect on students at East Sussex College Hastings. Currently the LRCs run two centres, the larger one at Station Plaza and a smaller one at Ore Valley. Both handle the support for the Learning, Assessment and Teaching of all students from entry level to the degree courses the college runs. The College group has decided that in order to save £60-70,000 across the group that two LRC sites will close. The Sixth Form LRC at Eastbourne and the Ore Valley LRC at Hastings. This decision for Hastings will cut the staffing in the LRC by half and will impact on the support the LRC can offer to all the students of the Hastings Campuses. Affected will be:

·         Opening hours
·         Study Skills support:
          -188 students over 630 1 to 1 meetings helped
          -442 students over 16hrs of in class workshops
·         First line IT support
·         Access to resources, such as core textbooks and IT equipment
·         Access to a safe space for students

The LRCs have already made savings through the loss of coordinators at Eastbourne and Lewes and the natural wastage of other staff at these campuses. This has left Eastbourne and Lewes very short of staff – this skeleton staffing is being used as a benchmark by which to reduce the Hastings staffing. This current move to reduce the service is blind to the positive impacts libraries have on the Learning, Assessment and Teaching of some of the most vulnerable in society. This must be at the top of the College’s mission, especially as Hastings in the 13th most deprived town in Britain. UCU believes this is short termism at its extreme. UCU requests that a 2nd site is maintained at Ore Valley, albeit a reduced one, so that the students on that campus can continue to receive the support which has aided hundreds of students to succeed in their studies at Hastings College.