Staff working conditions are student learning conditions – more than just a slogan!

Yet again, staff at universities across the UK are out on strike to defend their working conditions and pensions. Unsurprisingly, university management tries to pit students against staff. Students, however, are not falling for this. They realise that drastic cuts to staff pay and working conditions is mirrored in a deterioration in student learning conditions especially since the 2007/2008 global financial crisis.

 

Staff have experienced drastic cuts to their salaries and working conditions over the last 15 years. In real terms, salaries have declined by almost 20 per cent across Higher Education (HE). The sector is riven by large inequalities. The gender pay gap stands at 15 per cent, the disability pay gap at 9 per cent. Black members of staff earn 17 per cent less than white staff members! A relentless increase in workload especially during the pandemic has pushed many colleagues to the brink of collapse. Four in five colleagues surveyed in HE report that they are struggling with workload. Precarity rules the employment landscape. In 2019-20, 33% of academic staff in HE were employed on fixed-term contracts. To make matters worse, pensions are yet again under attack. Against the background of another dubious valuation of the health of the USS pension fund, employers want to bring in new cuts, affecting staff with cuts of up to 35 per cent depending on length of service (see The Fight over USS pensions).

At the same time, students have not fared much better in recent years. Universities lean over backwards in highlighting their focus on enriching the ‘student experience’. And while there may be some flashy new buildings, in real terms learning conditions have deteriorated. Student – staff ratios have increased across the sector. In my own department, the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, the size of ‘small group seminars’ has gone from 12 to 13 students in 2001 to now 25 students with one colleague even telling me that his seminar group has got 35 students.

With a relentless focus on increasing annual surpluses, the profitability of every unit is checked and if deemed unprofitable, study programmes or whole departments are being closed down reducing students’ choice of study options (see, for example, UCU 16 April 2021 or UCU 30 April 2021). High levels of casualization imply that students paying tuition fees of £9000 per year are taught by academics on zero hour or fixed-term contracts. Precariously employed staff, of course, are not necessarily bad teachers. However, their insecure position often does not allow them to put as much thought, time and care into their teaching as they would like.   

These cuts in students’ learning experience comes at a time when student debt is on the point of spiralling out of control. The average student debt of those graduating in 2020 is reported as just above £45000 (The Guardian, 25 November 2021). To be able to study in the first place, many students have to work part-time, which often disrupts their ability to focus on their course. Never before have students been presented with such a raw deal.

 

Students have seen through management propaganda. They have seen behind the lofty statements about universities being student focused. They have joined picket lines at the University of Nottingham and elsewhere and come out with strong statements in support of staff such as the Students Union at Nottingham University.

Higher Education has been savaged by Conservative-led governments since 2010 and university managements implementing marketisation. Students and staff have both suffered the consequences. Staff working conditions are student learning conditions – Another university is possible!

 

Solidarity!

Andreas Bieler

Professor of Political Economy

University of Nottingham/UK

Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk

Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net

2 December 2021