By "we", I refer to students.
The Association of University Teachers (AUT), a trade union to which many British university lecturers belong, recently decided to take industrial action over pay. The union is demanding a 23% pay increase; the highest offer made by the employers is about half that. The industrial action will consist of lecturers involved in setting and marking examinations (the majority) not doing so. This could delay results and might even delay graduations.
This is a serious threat. However, why does the AUT feel it necessary to make the life of students misery at a time when we are all under enough stress as it is? If the union has a quarrel with its members' employers, why does it have to bring students into it? The National Union of Students (NUS) supports the action because it says that higher pay will mean higher quality education - but at what cost? I have sympathy for the lecturers' cause, but their industrial action is irresponsible at best. I can only hope that the UCEA (the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association) can sort this out before it turns into a national outrage and a disaster for a great many students, finalists in particular.
Update: I have just heard that the UCEA has said that some universities might have to lay off some staff in order to finance the pay rises - is this what the AUT want?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
they muck about the student's in the hope that the student's will turn around and support them. the student's will protest and demand their education back, putting pressure on the purse strings, thus speedifying the whole strike action.
in theory...
it's like how tube drivers try for industrial action when tube riders need the tube most...say during the world cup england match tomorrow.
it's a warped mission. piss off the people who's support you want and need in order to gain your list of wants.
of course the people who get laid off because of the pay rise will think it's totally lame...but for the lucky ones who retain their job and gain a pay rise? SCORE! sacrifice a few to make me richer!
I agree.
The strange thing is that the NUS supported the strike from the start! I assumed that the NUS would take the position that lecturers deserve better pay but that messing around with our exams is not the way to protest. Yet again, I underestimated the NUS - and they took that policy decision without a ballot of members... very democratic of them.
I have a general problem with the NUS in that they claim to represent students when they really represent a small minority of politically-active students who stand to become NUS reps. I certainly don't feel that they represent me - I was on the government's side with "top-up" fees for a start. I really don't think that many students supported the AUT strike, even if such views are slightly selfish.
isn't that a problem with governments/unions in general. they claim to be bowing to the people...but it's only a few that really influence anything?
Yeah, that's exactly what I think.
It's the same with our ridiculous electoral system. Turnout is so low that no government can ever claim to be representative.
It's so frustrating when an MP stands up at Prime Minister's Questions and says, "My constituents feel that..." and mentions something he's been contacted about, because it's always the same minority of people who actually bother to write to their MP in the vain hope that something can be done about it. It seems to me that, since we have so much freedom relative to other countries, anything the government tries to do is considered "nannying" so they don't really do anything other than keep things ticking over and occasionally sleep with their secretaries! :p
There's a brilliant sketch by Rowan Atkinson, of Blackadder and Mr. Bean fame, where he plays the devil like a bureaucrat and says something like, "adulterers over there, rapists over there, lawyers and politicians over there..." :) If only!
i've seen that sketch!
hilarity.
Post a Comment