Anyone else not striking?

[goingpearshaped]

I am not in UCU so not striking. Anyone else? I can sense the divide already between those striking and those not in our dept, I really hate this. Agh, what a mess all round.

Oh sure, I'm not advocating for a multiple-union model at all. I actually just don't think our sector lends itself to having a collective-action type union because there isn't the sense of 'the collective' there around which to organise. I mean we're probably all being shafted but all being shafted in very different ways so its hard to come together to resist the shafting.

My DP's in STEM and that's very much the attitude of some of his PhD students. But he's in a field with huge opportunities for them to move to industry.

I think a FoI request to UCU asking about membership breakdown by career stage and then by discipline would be illuminating 👀

twitter.com/deepa_driver/status/1627639454759374849

twitter.com/illdoitanyway/status/1627645946312916993

In many walks of life it’s hard to reach any sort of sensible agreement until the ideologues are out of the picture - they tend to focus on their own narrow interests rather than some form of compromise or common good. DD being one example.

I'd say if you are incapable of reaching a compromise... maybe don't sign up for being a negotiator.

The comments about the difference between pre- and post-92 unis interest me as I’ve only worked in the latter. What is the teaching workload like at a pre-92 institution for a grade 8? Mine is about 420 hours per year (though it can be up to 550) and that works out at about 6 x 30 credit modules and 10 dissertation students per year (I only teach on post-grad courses). How does this equate with other places? There is the expectation of a minimum of 1 x 3*journal article per year.

Just wondering if I need to rejoin the union 🤣

I really hope this evening's email from Jo Grady surveying us on our support for the "pause" for decision by Wednesday is just for info. Stop messing us around, Jo!

It does make the gains for post-92s (mostly TPS) look derisory.

That works with the post-92 National contract - wouldn't if you hit the 540 hours, though, because that other excludes major commitments like the research paper.

But if you have a research contract and others in your place don't, that should specify research / other split? Presume colleagues in pre 92 likewise divided by contract type, so how much research time is the big divide.

I think 6 contact hours (UG and PGT) a week is pretty standard in a pre-92, outside of Oxbridge where you’d do more. So that’s 144 hours annually. In my department master’s dissertations and PhD supervision are on top and don’t officially count towards teaching.

Sorry, yes on a teaching contract I’d expect more like 8-10 hours a week.

Anyway, unless local contacts are different or there are other major calls on your time, UCU wouldn't contest your workload - they endorse the post-92 national contract.

I find it hard to trust them on workload negotiations when I don't know what outcomes they're seeking - too vague.

So, given that UCU endorses the post 92 national contract and has done for years, are we to assume that's an acceptable workload negotiation outcome for everyone - the 18 hours a week for teaching, reduced for research where appropriate? Because I've a feeling that's not what people are striking for.

Or does UCU know of some quantifiable difference in time taken to teach / research between these two parts of the sector?

Questions you'd hope they've considered ...

I’m in a post 92, teaching only contract. I teach 170 hours a year and apparently that’s one of the highest amounts in the school. I do no research and no masters or phd supervision. I work ten hours a day, no way could I manage a higher teaching workload 🤷🏻‍♀️

All academics in my institution are required to do both research and teaching, there are no ‘only’ contracts. We all teach around 450 per year and have research on top of this. In some areas such as teacher education, the 550 hours target can actually be exceeded too. I have colleagues
in education who do about 20 hours of teaching throughout term time and the research expectations are exactly the same for them. I’d kill to be on a teaching contract of 170 hours per year (I’m wondering if that’s a typo?).

@whoopitup we are the same position. My partner is clear I would do less teaching as a teaching only fellow at his institution. I'm not moving because despite this I love my institution but I am grumpy with UCU

It's really interesting to see the differences between the various types of university (and contracts).

I'm on a full time research and education contract at a RG pre-92 as a recently promoted associate prof, slight load reduction for buyout, teach about 70 hours per year and lead 2 10 credit modules (I realise how lucky I am). Admin post which takes up far, far more time than teaching. 10 UG dissertation students, 6 PhD students, usually 5 or so PGTs although this year they didn't need me to supervise.

Expectation of several 3 or 4* papers and grant applications per year, as well as contribution to strong impact case study every 3 or so years. I really like my job and it compares favourably to my previous 4 years of fixed-term research only contracts and 3 years of teaching-focused lectureship.

Are they enormous classes with big complex assessments maybe? Are you expected to spend so much time preparing? Unless it's a really unusual set-up, I hope you might be able to reduce those hours outside the classroom, and if I were your manager I'd try to help you with that.

Or do you have lots of student responsibilities - course management, tutorials etc?

We really are all doing different jobs.

We should set up an exchange system

I do 0.8 and course management and admissions tutor, and personal tutor for 30 students, teaching only contract in post 92. I do 500 hours contact time annually, approximately. Wow, I'm being screwed over, aren't I?

On a .8, post-92 national contract, you shouldn't normally have more than 432 hours contact time (assuming you prepare these classes and mark related work).

You should therefore be exceeding this only as an exception and should not have significant additional responsibilities.

There are details that might matter. If, for example, you're structuring lots of your teaching around small group tutorials by choice, without official requirement, these wouldn't be normal contact hours. Observations don't always count as contact hours. Demonstrating and ... um ... life modelling etc don't count as full contact hours in this connection. If a lot of your marking is live feedback and you're calling that teaching hours, grey area.

Still, my answer is, probably almost certainly yes, you're being screwed over. You may want to ask:

Is your workload typical for your dept?
Does your contract stipulate hours?
Does your department have a workload model?
Are they filling it in right.

And ... Are you a woman? (The invisible academic admin / care trap)

.8 is a terrible fraction. Not your fault. I bet they think of you as FT and good with students.

If most of your teaching is anything - go into room, speak to or with class about something you've prepared, eventually mark their work outside class time - you need to review your contract and any workload models, talk to your union rep / Head of Dept / HR contact and ask about workload allocation.

If I can help more please let me know.

I’m programme lead. Also module lead for 3x modules.

And admissions lead as well!

Apart from having no PhD students which is a huge drag (the supervisors with lots of students just take on more) and no grants = no RAs, I have a fairly jammy job.
My research is not really lab based though (mainly fieldwork) so I can chopped data, mainly through collaboration in my main field countries.
.8 pre 92 - I had a big assessment admin job last year and at most 50 contact hours not counting MSc (2) and UG project students (6). I'm on sabbatical this year. I didn't coordinate any modules or programmes though (but we just have one huge coordinator job for UG and two for PGT).

*collect data

I see the person in UCU notorious for bullying female academics is "calling out" the misogynistic bullying of the GS. Do these people have no self-awareness whatsoever?

Well, quite. Can't help feeling a smidgin of Schadenfreude.