If you read
the papers, you may be aware that university lecturers are on strike today, at
least some of them. I am one.
Why? Is it
about the money. Well yes some, but being honest I am striking over pay only
because nothing else was balloted and nothing else is on the table. So, yes. It
is about the money.
It is about
the money because in the last data I have seen, my VC makes more than the prime
minister and more than the VC at our better sister University in the same city.
No he isn’t worth it. At least I don’t think so. I’d think he was worth it if
he sent half his salary to David Cameron. He’d still be well paid. I don’t even
like the guy (David Cameron that is) but he has a very important and very
difficult job and I respect him for the work he does, whatever disagreements I
have with him and his policies. Just so you know, I don’t like Gordon Brown, or
Blair, or Major, or Thatcher either. I can’t imagine enjoying sitting down to
dinner with any of them. But they were all worth the money they were paid.
But if the
money is only a minor issue, what are the others. There is only time for some
of them.
In the university sector, only slightly over 45% are academic staff. This is sector wide. This value is an average and some universities will be below average. Some are perhaps very much below average. The Boards of Governors of UK universities include some very high powered corporate executives and former executives. I am stunned that this number is not discussed more. It makes me think they are asleep at the wheel and that perhaps they are not asking the right questions. Perhaps they are not that well informed, but I can’t imagine that any who owned their own business would tolerate a figure like that at least without some hard questions.
One
estimate I have seen in
the press is that at the new rate of fees, each hour of instruction costs a
student £45. Beginning next week I will be giving a series of 10 lectures to
approximately 200 students. This calculates to £90,000, just that set of
lectures. I don’t make that much, not even close. Once Friday is over, I will
have delivered 10 lectures to approximately 100 students ( another £45,000). I
don’t mind that most of it doesn’t go to me, what I mind is...
... when I
began university teaching, I was assigned an office and some lab space. That
was a long time ago in the West Indies. There, I would lecture to a group of
students and for roughly every two weeks of lecture, I would see every student
in small tutorials (about 15 students but often fewer). The typical student
there paid BD$200.
... when I moved to the UK in 2005 (about the time the ~£3k top up fees were introduced), I was assigned to a shared office with one other person. I was assigned a small lab and would see each student in small tutorials (about 15 students) about once every 8 lectures. There was an open door policy for students which meant they could see me as long as I was in my office. Much of the time I spent with students involved showing them how to do computations of varying complexity using spreadsheets and I could do these conveniently at my desk. It mostly worked, but my office mate sometimes had to leave because he couldn’t stand to listen to me explain dilution computations AGAIN.
... now, I work in a shared office with 5 people. Last year the instructional tutorials became something better called a “workshop” and there were two hours of these for 10 hours of lecture and were delivered to groups which were sometimes over 100. A new non-academic “pastoral” tutorial system was introduced. The open door policy no longer exists. I had the heart-breaking experience this year of having to tell students I couldn’t help them, not because I couldn’t at that instant in time, not because my other colleagues were in the office at the time, but because I knew if I broke discipline, within a few weeks the shared office would be more unusable than it already is for work requiring concentration. I felt terrible about this, but part of my job is to be an actor at times so as to not spread negativity. I truly miss the open door policy. I truly miss having an office allowing me to converse easily and non-disruptively with my students. In the years between 2005 and the present, I have had 5 different offices and I will soon move (partly) to the 5th lab (this is for research not teaching).
... my experience is that effort delivered to students is inversely proportional to the amount of money those students have been paying. At the same time grades have been inflated.
... when I moved to the UK in 2005 (about the time the ~£3k top up fees were introduced), I was assigned to a shared office with one other person. I was assigned a small lab and would see each student in small tutorials (about 15 students) about once every 8 lectures. There was an open door policy for students which meant they could see me as long as I was in my office. Much of the time I spent with students involved showing them how to do computations of varying complexity using spreadsheets and I could do these conveniently at my desk. It mostly worked, but my office mate sometimes had to leave because he couldn’t stand to listen to me explain dilution computations AGAIN.
... now, I work in a shared office with 5 people. Last year the instructional tutorials became something better called a “workshop” and there were two hours of these for 10 hours of lecture and were delivered to groups which were sometimes over 100. A new non-academic “pastoral” tutorial system was introduced. The open door policy no longer exists. I had the heart-breaking experience this year of having to tell students I couldn’t help them, not because I couldn’t at that instant in time, not because my other colleagues were in the office at the time, but because I knew if I broke discipline, within a few weeks the shared office would be more unusable than it already is for work requiring concentration. I felt terrible about this, but part of my job is to be an actor at times so as to not spread negativity. I truly miss the open door policy. I truly miss having an office allowing me to converse easily and non-disruptively with my students. In the years between 2005 and the present, I have had 5 different offices and I will soon move (partly) to the 5th lab (this is for research not teaching).
... my experience is that effort delivered to students is inversely proportional to the amount of money those students have been paying. At the same time grades have been inflated.
Some of my
colleagues work in offices of 8 or more. There are environments where open plan
offices work, apparently, but the evidence is this is not true of knowledge
workers. The consequences for me in my 5 person shared office is that I work
from home more than I did. Joke if you will about “working” from home, wink,
wink, but it is not a joke. I hate it. I despise it. Every minute of my working
at home is a sign of failure in my view. I hate it because, I actually like
working with students. I hate it because I think it is important for me to be
at the University as part of a community. I hate it because for me it
represents a failure of vision. I hate it because, my students can’t find me. I
hate it because, it makes my work invade my home life more than it already has.
I have
colleagues scheduled for 8 hours days without break. I have colleagues who are
allocated 2 hours to supervise final year dissertations.
This is
just the beginning, but it gives a flavour. Over the course of this year I will
teach somewhere between 350 and 400 students. With this size group, almost all
statistical probabilities will be visited on one or another of those students.
Me and my colleagues need to be there for them. Some of these colleagues will
be on short-term or zero-hours contracts. If the year beginning now is like the
one just ended, in addition to my teaching and research duties, I will also
help students with financial problems, with depression, with mental illness,
who have been robbed, who have been raped, who have been defrauded, who have
had serious illness, who collapse, who are suicidal. I will write
recommendations, I will advise police departments, and support former students
to find jobs, to get through tough times, sometimes help them get accommodation.
I will receive about 11000 emails and send about 4000.
So, yes it
is about the money, because the environment is not on the table. UCU is one of the few organisations speaking up. The Students Union is also doing good work.
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