Lecturer Strike

Non of the lecturers in our department are on strike, not sure about other departments. Dosen't affect me anyway as I am in the lab all day today, or at least I should be, but I finished it last week :)

siztenboots said:
Pfft , work to rule, considering I do 2 hours unpaid work daily compared to the lecturers who come in to do a supposedly 2 hour lecture once per week, in about 45 mins , then bugger off again. Plus the whole of summer off !
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err, what about their research? Research is the main job for most academics, although they don't get that much time for it during term time, so that is what they spend the holidays doing, not sitting on some beach or getting drunk like most students will be.
 
No lectures today, thanks for letting me know after I've setup the projector for this morning but then again I'm just a technician. :(

Still had a lab on this afternoon with about 12 students though (normally about 50) so not everyone is taking part. Most of our labs are run on Tuesdays/Thursdays so it's hit one of our busiest days of the week, not that I'm complaining really.

As for the academic pay, they must be having a laugh wanting 4% a year on top of their current £36K average. I wonder if this includes money they get from research as well?

One other note is that due to the modernising agenda they're going through at the moment a lot of academics involved with the teaching labs won't be allowed to do research as it interferes with teaching duties. :D :p
 
afraser2k said:
As for the academic pay, they must be having a laugh wanting 4% a year on top of their current £36K average. I wonder if this includes money they get from research as well?
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While I agree that in most cases their pay is quite sufficient, if I understand the situation correctly the universities offered a pay rise as a bribe to get support for tuition fees. Now that tuition fees have been around for a few years the academics are, rightly imo, a bit annoyed that they haven’t seen the money they were promised.
 
PhilthyPhil said:
While I agree that in most cases their pay is quite sufficient, if I understand the situation correctly the universities offered a pay rise as a bribe to get support for tuition fees. Now that tuition fees have been around for a few years the academics are, rightly imo, a bit annoyed that they haven’t seen the money they were promised.
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Top-up fee's do not apply to Scotland. This is what's funding the increases in England/Wales.
 
haha, I went to do some work in the computer lab today (spent 5 hours :(!) but on my way at 9am it was pouring down with rain and there were about 5-10 people with signs over there heads in the rain. I guess it was the lecturers :p
Gotta love the weather. You would've thought at least one of them would've known it would rain :p
 
One of our lecturers gave us a heads up yesterday, although i wasnt in today. We got a letter this morning about it too.

What worries me as a final year student:

In addition, we have been told that the AUT and NATHFE will be asking their members to take other industrial action, short of a strike. One of the suggested actions is "a marking boycott covering all student assessment, examination boards, student feedback and invigilation.

...This means we cannot say, at this point, precisely how the boycott might affect students. We do, however, appreciate that you will be concerned about whether a boycott might put your progression or graduation at risk at the end of the academic year.
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Damn right I'm concerned! :mad:
 
Don't think my lecturer was on strike this morning, didnt go anyway though cos he's one of these annoying people who just put their presentation up on the projector and proceed to pretty much read it out. Much easier to print it off from the website and have an extra hour in bed...
 
We here at the University of Kent at Canterbury where informed about this last week with a nice email explaining things, we also got an Email from the union explaining that it was about the Pay and stuff and that the Union backed them. sadly its my Project week so i dont have any lectures or Classes anyway :(

should be sorted soon enough
 
afraser2k said:
Top-up fee's do not apply to Scotland. This is what's funding the increases in England/Wales.
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Ah right, I should have looked at your location. Does Scotland not have tuition fees either as I believe this is what the strikes are related to, as opposed to top up fees which I think don't start until September.
 
Our labs were cancelled today. Lectures were still on though - he's retired, so reckons there's not much point striking anyway :D
There was a handful hanging around at 0900, but by 1100 they'd scarpered. Guess it was too wet :p

Got millions of emails about it though mostly from SRC.

Does Scotland not have tuition fees either
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They do and they don't. Scottish students get them paid for by the SAAS.
 
tolien said:
They do and they don't. Scottish students get them paid for by the SAAS.
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Correct, however we get to pay a "graduate endowment" of £2,000(last time I looked) when we graduate. It is a sterling idea to saddle students with more debt just as they qualify ;) Mind you this doesn't have anything much to do with a lecturers strike so I'll stop before I start off on a rant about the education system :)
 
There was a demonstration in George Square (I think) at lunch time so I'm guessing those at the gates went there. We had members at every main gate and most department entrances with pickets. All the lectures cancelled today have been re-arranged for tomorrow or later this week so students aren't missing out on much here.

I'll copy/paste a bit of the e-mail I got this morning at work:

Amicus staff working in Higher Education may be aware that both AUT and NATFHE members have voted for strike action on 7th March 2006 and other action short of strike on 8th March and continuing thereafter until further notice. The other academic union in Scotland, EIS, has decided not to ballot staff and are not in dispute.

Amicus supports the AUT and NATFHE in their dispute but for legal reasons the union is constrained in what members can and cannot do.

Amicus advice to Higher Education members is that they are not in dispute and members should continue to attend their place of work and work normally.
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