What happens with a degree course where the staff leave and they can’t recruit?

[SofaSlumber]

So looks like I’m going to be going to be the last member of staff standing after everyone else has left/just handed their notice in. They’ve been trying to recruit for ages but no applicants. No other staff in the university can teach it as they’re not qualified and it’s a professional registration course. I can’t teach 3 cohorts, physically impossible to be in 3 places at once. They’ve been trying to get people from practice to help out but nobody is interested. Does the course just finish, mid degree for the students?

I've no idea what happens but just wanted to show some solidarity. I deliver professionally registered courses and my university have little clue about the requirements professional bodies have and the workload associated. Recruiting is difficult because academic pay hasn't kept up with practice pay and the perceived benefits of the academic life are no longer available. It's a house of cards that's going to collapse sooner rather than later

Yes, the pay issue is exactly why we can’t recruit. I feel sorry for the students

Courses have been known to finish mid degree when they sack staff or close whole departments to save money, so yes I think that is a possibility.

Pretty sure the Office for Students would get involved in these instances and your institution would invoke their Student Protection Plan.

www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-rights-and-welfare/protecting-students-if-a-course-campus-or-university-closes/course-or-campus-closure/#:~:text=Universities%20and%20colleges%20registered%20with,clear%20information%20about%20their%20courses.

Can you stretch yourself to be in two places at the same time if they kick out the cohort who are just about to join? Ie could you just about cover two years' cohorts temporarily?
Did they offer the course for 2024 joiners in the knowledge that they had this problem?

I couldn’t but the new cohort are starting on Monday so probably too late to cancel! 🙈. They’re in on average 4 days a week per cohort. Admittedly for most of the year we only have two cohorts in uni at a time. But that’s still 8 days of 9-5 teaching , plus being module lead for 12 modules, some of which haven’t been prepped yet, all the marking, skills sessions, and supporting over 100 students/answering 50plus emails a day and all the course leader stuff. 🤷‍♀️

The obvious solution is for another institution to do the teaching in a franchise arrangement. Though that would likely take many months to sort out, certainly not possible for an incoming cohort that starts in a week or two.

I've no idea. But we have the same - started year three this week to discover we are having whole cohort lectures of 200 instead of groups of max 30 as normal.

Gosh I feel for you. It's a higher level management decision but it's you at the coal face.. terrible situation.

What happens if you're sick? Shouldn't be allowed to run like this.

Have you spoken to the union?

I spoke to the union a few months ago but we had more staff then and they just told me to document how many hours I’m working. And to be honest I haven’t done that. I mean I know on average I’ve been working 10-11 hrs a day for the last year. I haven’t spoken to them again since my colleagues have handed their notice in.

Not sure they can be much help apart from telling me not to work over my hours and let SLT manage the consequences. Which I know already. OH have told me this as I got referred to them for stress.

And yes if I go off sick there will be nobody to take the lecture…..unless they get someone from another course to literally read a ppt on a subject they don’t know anything about.

Typically the incoming students will be given the choice to change degree programme, defer or find another institution to start this year, the existing students will try to be accommodated to complete their programme if at all possible, temp staff recruited if necessary

If it's for a professional course, will this not bring about an accreditation event/visit? If the course is not accredited then the students are really going to suffer. That might be a lever if budgets are tight at a high up level.

In that you cannot recruit, is this a money problem? a university reputation problem? or an industry shortage? The latter could be very difficult to handle. I hope you get some support and a solution for you. Where have all the other people gone?

It’s a money problem. They offer an hourly rate of £17 for guest lecturers. The substantive post has a starting salary of £36k I think. People in practice would be earning substantially more. They’re not going to have a 15k pay-cut to come to us. The university won’t start them on SL grade if they don’t have a Masters, won’t match existing salary.

God that's awful OP. I teach on a professionally accredited course and we all have generous market supplements on our salaries as they need people with the magic letters after their names. It's ridiculous to pretend that experienced professionals will leave practice for a lecturer's salary.

You simply can't do it all, it's not physically possible. I'm not one for pulling a sickie but you will genuinely end up off sick if you continue like this.

Would you come up with a plan to cover the most crucial bits yourself and tell management they need to cover the rest by hook or by crook? I know you don't want to let the students down but you need to look after yourself too.

Or as DH often says to me - what would a mediocre man do?

Go off sick with stress for six months full pay probably? 😆

No one would blame you, you must be on the brink.

Hi OP. This sounds shocking. You need to report this to the relevant regulator (I'm guessing HCPC or NMC?) and the professional body. The programme needs to close and students complete elsewhere. I can't imagine any regulatory body supporting this structure. I am speechless that the University has not addressed this.