Lecturer Strike

[Abraham]

Lecturer pay = Worst teaching pay around. Its actually quite shocking, barely even a livable wage, like most of education to be honest.

from the quotes i've seen about manchester at any rate, that's simply not true, average and minimum lecturer wages are pretty much 10k over equivalents at 2ndary, and while it may be a hard job, they do get a decent wage for it

as with other 3rd years, most of my department is worried about the lack of assessment and how it may affect graduation

the biggest problem within the department is that because projects are marked by only 2 staff and those staff are different for almost everyone there's going to be huge uneveness in if peoples projects get marked

 

[Stellios]

Lecturer pay = Worst teaching pay around. Its actually quite shocking, barely even a livable wage, like most of education to be honest.

Define worst pay, my lecturer has just had a £5k pay rise from a promotion, and its giving him less teaching time in the process.

Im not saying dont strike, but from the holidays lecturer/teachers get compared to the pay its not that bad. I could do a 70 hour week and still be on less than lecturers.

 

[Roberta]

Im not saying dont strike, but from the holidays lecturer/teachers get compared to the pay its not that bad.

With lecturers they don't actually get the holidays as they're publishing their own work to stay in their job. It's pretty much a constant which is why so many of them suffer from stress related illnesses.

 

[Garp]

Define worst pay, my lecturer has just had a £5k pay rise from a promotion, and its giving him less teaching time in the process.

Im not saying dont strike, but from the holidays lecturer/teachers get compared to the pay its not that bad. I could do a 70 hour week and still be on less than lecturers.

Yeah, and no doubt load of other responsibilities alongside it. I can almost guarantee you that £5k just about puts it into livable wages territory.

6th form college teachers are paid around 18~23k, assuming they're just a teacher, depending on experience. Lecturers are paid worse than that. Does that put things a little bit into perspective? Certainly where I am around the south even a 1 bedroom flat costs about £110k.
Given the best anyone in their right mind takes out for a mortgage is about 3.5x their salary, for a 6th form teacher at best they'd be able to get an 80k mortgage. Thats not a livable wage. Its small wonder the lecturers are complaining as they're paid worse (on the basis that teachers are trained to teach whereas you don't need to be trained to be a lecturer)

 

[Abraham]

6th form college teachers are paid around 18~23k, assuming they're just a teacher, depending on experience. Lecturers are paid worse than that.

thats just not true
as i posted, average lecturer wages are 10k higher

also, very few people can afford a reasonable mortgage on their own, which is why so many people buy as a couple, it gives them more buying power without using all of their income

yes lecturers have to stay published to be a lecturer
however
most lecturers are there to do research, they only lecture as they have to keep lecturing to keep researching, very few lecturers teach more than 4 courses a year if that, and even those lecturers who devote a lot of time to teaching get by as contributors to research groups

I'm basing this mostly on my department at UMIST, but also the close experience of a few others i've had here in manchester and across the country

 

[AthlonTom]

After reading this thead I quizzed a few of my lecturers, all of them earm more than 30K, one of whom let slip one time that he was trying to save half his wages (2.5K!) per month! (He is faculty head thingy though)

 

[Garp]

After reading this thead I quizzed a few of my lecturers, all of them earm more than 30K, one of whom let slip one time that he was trying to save half his wages (2.5K!) per month! (He is faculty head thingy though)

Thats interesting. NATFE puts 30k as being about the top level payment for a lecturer, with the typical pay being much worse.

thats just not true
as i posted, average lecturer wages are 10k higher

Abraham, I'm not saying you're wrong.. I'm just a little baffled where NATFE gets its figures from. As I understand things, the staff at one of our other campuses which counts as FE and whom are mainly lecturers, are paid at around NATFE levels. The difficulty thats causing at work (we merged with them on Aug 1st last year) is that our teaching staff are paid higher, more in line with the HE/6th form sector. Pay reviews are under way and the whole pay structure is taking a shakeup
Something you do have to remember, and I wonder if this is where the pay shift occurs: lecturers are not just univeristy staff, but covers all aspects of 19+ education, including vocational training. Few, if any, of the lecturers employed on our counterparts site are involved in research, and none of them produce literature (besides one lady who rights Mills and Boon books)

 

[Abraham]

i've been informed today that staff at my uni are merely sympathy striking, our uni are already complying with the new demands (which may be the cause of the difference in the figures i've got (largely from manchester) and those nationally)
while fair enough, it's what the union are doing, makes it more annoying that the students are being adversley affected by ie

 

[manic_man]

as far as im aware pay at my uni for top lecturers can top 40k.... some of them are very incompetant indeed... funny how those are the only ones who went on strike.. it was so predictable who would not bother and who would (free day off? ) im sure this isnt the same across the country though...

either way my uni seems determined to not let it effect us... anywho if no one marks our stuff then thats what PHd students are for