The 1% and me: More about strikes and UK Higher Education

There was another strike on the 3^rd of December. I participated. Why?

I participated in strike action because in my heart of hearts I believe Universities are sustainable. How does this belief matter?

Before considering that some facts. We have been offered a 1% raise. There are a lot of people in the UK hurting. There are a lot of people in the UK who are looking at no raises. But they deserve better and I hope they would fight for better pay if they were in my position. Because of who I am, perhaps I am not the best person to give a raise to. I am not a big spender and demand stimulates economies. I am too desperately trying to save for a retirement to be extravagant. 

For now, I do have a pension slowly building up but I expect it will have been gutted by the time I retire. Similarly, a lot of people in the UK have already had their pensions gutted or have none but the state pension. They deserve better and I hope they would care about their pensions if they had one. Pension theft is the new international sport.

What about the sustainability of Universities?

If inflation is running at 13% over a 3 year period of time and wages rise by 1% this is not sustainable over the long term. If this continues for 9 years, the standard of living will drop by 29%. I will retire in roughly 15 years. By then the effective wage of academic in Higher education will have dropped by 44%. This is not sustainable.

Do Universities have the money? I think they do, but they are spending it badly. Were fees flat (they are not) as they were mostly up until last academic year, fair enough. But with the new fees, last year there should have been about 8-10% increase in income from teaching. 

I have looked for the release of the financial statements of universities for academic year 2012/13. Usually they are signed off in November, but last I looked I could only find older ones. If income is going to increase 8-10% per year there should be enough to support a cost of living increase with some left over.

But no. We are looking at 1%. I am now part of the 1% - those with a 1% salary increase. 

If inflation were flat, fair enough. 

If income were flat or down for what we do, fair enough.

I don’t think either applies and the I think the Universities know that. There is a lot of money sloshing around on campuses. For evidence look at the building spree on campuses and associated research parks. 

I will strikenext time too, thank you very much.