Sponsored by

• Home
• News
• Comment
• Muse
• Politics
• Sport
• Blogs
• Elections

Quality of British degrees depends on support for the ongoing AUT strikes

May 26, 2006
James Caldwell

As a rule of thumb, I do my utmost to avoid people attempting to get me to sign petitions. I have mastered the art of zig-zagging across busy high streets in order to get to my chosen destination without being accosted by well-meaning but highly irritating people, bedecked in red bibs and bobble hats.

Should this strategy of evasion fail, I have memorised several verbal responses to ensure I am left well alone: “Sorry, my car park expired ten minutes ago, I really must get back”; “I would love to sign your piece of paper, but I have to get to my interview”.

Thus I was extremely surprised a few weeks ago to find myself asking a student outside Vanbrugh College, “Excuse me, could I sign your petition?” He looked rather surprised himself, but duly handed over the clipboard for me to leave my details and sign my name in support of the cause.

British higher education rests on this dispute being resolved.

By signing the petition, I was expressing my support for the industrial action being carried out by the AUT and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

The arguments for doing so seemed fairly straightforward to me at the time, and this remains the case. The quality of British higher education rests on this dispute being resolved. Our academic staff, when compared to their counterparts in other parts of the world, are highly undervalued. Their current level of pay, given their high level of training and expertise, is far lower than it should be. According to a study conducted by the AUT the average salary of a lecturer in Britain is only ££32, 500 while in the United States lecturers are earning a whole 47.5% more.

As such, representatives of the lecturers’ unions are right to dismiss the offer of a six per cent pay increase over two years as derisory. In fact considering that 1,000 lecturers have chosen to work for universities abroad, over a quarter of them being emplyed in the U.S., the small pay increase is unlikely to make a drastic difference.

The National Union of Students has supported the academic union from the beginning, and is justified in its concern that unless lecturers receive a fairer pay deal, academics will be attracted overseas, thus diminishing the quality of British universities.

The NUS is working hard on many levels, it is engaging in talks with the AUT over exam boycotts, with the University Continuing Education Association over their reluctance to re-enter negotiations, and with various MPs and Vice-Chancellors – to find a resolution to this problem as quickly as possible, in order to minimise the damaging impact this action could have on thousands of finalists.

York Students’ Union has been in discussions with academic staff and the Student Graduate’s Association, and appears to have come to a settlement whereby those students who have been affected by AUT action will graduate in much the same way as those whose degrees have been unaffected. This should, to an extent, be applauded. Yet it seems to me that YUSU, by withdrawing its support for its national equivalent, is guilty of short-sightedness, and risks undermining the excellent work being done by the NUS to resolve the pay dispute at the national level. The quality of British universities will remain in jeopardy until lecturers receive a fairer pay deal. YUSU’s decision to break away from the NUS will act only as a hindrance to a just resolution to this disquieting situation.

As a first-year History with French student, the industrial action has had no impact on me whatsoever. I am concerned about sitting my French exams in Week 6, and whether I will achieve the result I want; I have no concerns as to whether they will or will not be marked. Thus my stance may seemsomewhat superficial, as I am not experiencing any of the distress thatmany finalists, at this university and at others around the country, are going through.

However, my concern that the qualities of British universities should not diminish over the coming years means that I have no qualms supporting the academic unions over the industrial action, and I would strongly urge YUSU to do the same.

Nouse.co.uk is powered by WordPress and protected by Akismet. Designed by Chris Northwood, Mike Tomasello, Alex Muller, Ali Clark and Andrew Fairbairn.