In what will be the first of at least a couple of posts I feel the need to re-but the entirely inaccurate, biased and poorly researched attempts by the BBC recently to allege that Ruskin College is diminishing its founding principles through recent decisions to withdraw a number of courses:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-32963257
The harsh reality is that the College, as a provider of both further and higher education, has been caught in a pincer movement of changes to government funding, which has precipitated decisions affecting courses which either recruit low student numbers and/or struggle to retain students.
From this understandable anger and frustration has come the perverse allegation that Ruskin is somehow moving away from the founding principle of the provision of education to working class women and men who seek to return to learning.
Sadly for the BBC the facts have not got in the way of a good story.
What the BBC should have done is sought to balance their journalism by talking to a cross-section of students at Ruskin, and perhaps alumni, to get a sense of why they picked the College and their experience as a student.
For now then, let me provide some images of students of Ruskin to start to provide some balance and perspective to the BBC's reporting, but also some realistic perspective of the ideals of working class education which remain firmly in place at the College.
In Solidarity
Ian
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