Lecturers union threaten strike action if forced to teach in person

[EnemyOfEducationNo1]

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/17/lecturers-warn-they-will-strike-if-forced-to-resume-unsafe-teaching

I think it's unacceptable how badly they strike. They always strike in a way to causes as little disruption as possible

I'm guilty of that, I am afraid. I've never missed a lecture, seminar, tutorial or marking deadline yet due to strike action. Most of my colleagues are similarly incompetent.

It's not lectures, tutorials, seminars, or marking deadlines that impact on the universities finances because students aren't compensated when those are missed and the impact is felt across the sector so students cannot just opt to study elsewhere. The way lecturers would actually impact on their employment would be missing research deadlines, grant applications, or refusing to appear at external conferences being hosted by their department.

*employers not employment.

I get the sense that my Labour Economics lecturer was not particularly impressed by my coursework on the balance of power between unions and employers which referenced lecturers unions as ones that seemed to think their position was stronger than it actually was (as the financial impact on the union's members is typically greater than on the university as the unions typically focus on teaching commitments and members continue to do their research around the strike days meaning the university can afford to hold out longer than the members in most cases).

@EnemyOfEducationNo1

Would any of you affected be happy if you could teach in ventilated socially distanced rooms, with everyone wearing cloth face coverings?

Interestingly, at the university where I work students said they wanted as much face-to-face teaching as possible before the start of the autumn term, which I completely understand, but when it came to it it was actually really unpopular and when given a direct choice the online option was vastly better attended/more frequently chosen. I think what students wanted (what we all want) was normality, but that wasn't on offer and actually a seminar where you all have to sit so far apart you can't hear each other, wearing masks, and with the windows wide open so it's freezing cold is less pleasant and less conducive to a constructive discussion than Zoom. Both students and academics also disliked sessions with some students in person and some online, which seemed to produce a bad experience for both groups (despite the university spending upwards of £2m on equipment to facilitate it). Obviously there are some courses where face-to-face is absolutely indispensable, but in a lot of courses it really did start to feel like online teaching was the better option even while still not being a great one.

@StatisticalSense

It's not lectures, tutorials, seminars, or marking deadlines that impact on the universities finances because students aren't compensated when those are missed and the impact is felt across the sector so students cannot just opt to study elsewhere. The way lecturers would actually impact on their employment would be missing research deadlines, grant applications, or refusing to appear at external conferences being hosted by their department.

The problem is that this would also have a much more direct impact on lecturers' own career progression. I also think you're underestimating how much universities care about their NSS results, and strike action that impacts on students does have a real impact here - and actually strike participation is very uneven across institutions and even more so across subjects so you do see a real dip in student satisfaction for striker-heavy places and departments.

There is some variance between institutions but in most cases once differences in subjects offered are controlled for these are quite small, especially between institutions with similar entry requirements and prestige (there is little point in comparing Sheffield with Hallam or Birmingham with Birmingham City for instance). Differences between subjects are next to irrelevant as universities care more about their ranking than their absolute score on the NSS and if everyone's score for a highly unionised subject (like politics) reduces by a similar margin rankings are barely affected (and students are unlikely to switch from politics to engineering because of NSS scores).