Rumours of contract changes

[ElbowsUpRising]

So survived one round of redundancies last year and round 2 has started. VR for now and then compulsory expected to follow.

Also talk of “contract changes”. I’m slightly nervous that people might get bumped down from senior lecturer to lecturer if they don’t meet some line in the sand with regards to what they have to offer. Ie if they don’t have a Masters/phd. Could this happen?

My gut feeling is it's more likely to be about benefits, than the core pay and the job title, but maybe phone ACAS on Monday for advice if you don't have a union.

Could it be to remove research and make R&T staff T-focused? I think this is going to start to happen now, especially with uncertainty about QR funding.

I’m the UCU, much as I don’t agree with a lot of the ucu. 👍. Not sure what benefits it might be…pension? I’m in the TPS which I know costs the unis a lot but I thought they’d been given no choice over the scheme 🤷‍♀️

Yes could be. Which is fine for me to be honest as I don’t have time for research…though I suppose then they’ll expect my teaching hours to double.

This would be my guess.

Starbucks is looking more attractive by the day

I doubt they will demote anyone, that’s just asking for an employment tribunal, but yes, reduced research allowances, increased teaching loads, changes to the workload model which mean more work, faculties keeping all of the research grant overheads, culling personal development allowances. Oh yes, sadly there is a lot they can do. Good luck OP.

What do you mean about uncertainty over QR please? Just with the ref being a shitshow this time or something else?

The THES has been reporting that cuts to QR funding are anticipated, eg:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/job-fears-grow-research-england-models-ps100-million-qr-cut

I work in a research intensive university in a humanties subject. QR funding is a small % of my department's income. If it reduces further, I can see a situation in which we are told that we won't be doing research without a large grant.

Yes I’d say it’s about percentage of research in your contract.

My university (Russell group to boot) reduced “unfunded” research in everyone’s contracts a couple of years ago, the fuckers.

Thanks @GCAcademicI’d missed that. Bugger. Yes, our lot have been going round using the phrase ‘own funded research’ for ages and use TRAC reporting which, no matter how many hours you report working, recalculates entries in %. So anyone working say a 100 hour week with 50 hours of teaching and 50 hours of research (note - spurious made up figures to illustrate a point) instead of being told to work less and having their teaching hours reduced is accused of doing too much ‘own funded’ research because there is clearly no such thing as our own time. I advise people to stop filling out the form once they’ve reached 37/40 hours but make sure they include all admin and teaching. And this in a RG faculty in the top 10 in our area for the REF. It’s insane. They don’t complain about own-funded tables and chairs, but sneak off to do research and you’re somehow letting the side down.

Yes, research in the humanities will have to be grant funded to "count". If you don't have a grant, you'll be doing a lot of teaching to "make up" for the fact you don't have a certain amount of money in grant capture. And, as VS gets to be common every year for the next few, they need to cover more teaching with fewer people. Total race to the bottom.

I’m waiting for this to happen at my university. Get rid of the research allowance in the workload and increase teaching.

OK, I've just been talking to someone from another uni and at his university they have had recent changes.

Anyone without a phd has had a job title change and is no longer allowed to be a senior lecturer. He says the pay has stayed the same though, but they are called something educators? I wonder how long the pay will stay the same for?

This must be quite subject specific—I’m in the Humanities and I don’t know anyone without a PhD. But they are trying to push people onto teaching and scholarship contracts.

I'm an SL without a PhD - vocational area.
If they want me to stop being an SL they can have their course leaderships back. I'm in a team of six and only two have PhDs, so that would go well with five undergraduate courses and two masters programmes to run ...