The University of London is to cut its annual £1 million funding package for student union, ULU, by 50 percent.

This will endanger the existence of sports clubs, societies and campaigns that unite the University’s widespread colleges, said a ULU sabbatical officer.

London Student, Europe’s largest student newspaper and primary link between the 19 colleges that make up the University of London, faces the axe.

“For many [the newspaper] is the only benefit of ULU membership,” said Elinor Zuke, editor of London Student.

“It's not our fault that ULU has made a loss in nine of the last 10 years, and we probably wouldn't be defending our position if it hadn't,” added Zuke.

Students at Goldsmiths College and Royal Holloway, both part of the University of London, often have little contact with other colleges as there are large distances between them.

London Student is the “main means of communication between colleges”, said Angela Phillips, senior lecturer at Goldsmiths. “How else are students going to find out what’s going on?”

Phillips went on to say that the closure of so many ULU services including London Student would be “a blow to democracy”.

“Given how much concern there is about apathy amongst young people and the need to encourage political involvement amongst students, I think for ULU to close London Student is totally irresponsible,” she added.

Many students are beginning to question how their fees are being spent.

Luke Hanrahan, an MA TV Journalism student at Goldsmiths said: “The fees keep going up but student facilities keep being taken away…a London-wide student paper is not too much to ask for.”

The University of London currently gives ULU more than £1m a year but the Heads of Colleges Committee set up a group to review funding of the union because both the university and ULU are facing financial difficulties.

“The funding will be phased out by £500,000 over two years”, said the sabbatical officer.

The committee has also decided to reduce the number of sabbatical officers from four to two. In light of this, the sabbatical officers have decided to delay elections until after the report is made public because they will not know until then how many officers they can appoint.

“I’m quite upset about what’s going on, not just in the Union, but within the University of London itself,” said Jennifer Huseman, ULU President. “One of the things I’ve been especially unhappy with is that they’re cutting student representation from the main governing body,” she continued.

Despite the huge changes in the pipeline, the University of London has denied all requests from London Student to disclose information from the ongoing discussions.

“The working group’s papers and minutes would form part of an incomplete process and would serve to misrepresent the group’s views and misinform the public,” said Steven Plant from the University’s Legal and Constitutional Office.

Zuke believes the university is “invoking secrecy for secrecy’s sake and that is manifestly against the public interest”.

The review group will present their final report to the Heads of Colleges Committee on 18 January.

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