Lecturers' Strike threatening to derail graduations this summer

[MillyMollyMama]

DD has just phoned home to say one of her lecturers told the class she could be on strike when marking of the finals papers takes place. DD contacted a couple of friends at other universities and found some knew about the strike because the university had officially told them, but others had no idea at all about it. Does anyone know more about this any why it is not universally known about? Thanks.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Ok, I'm sorry, I'm really saying this wrongly.

I do believe she is great. Organizing student balls is great. No one is disputing that and god knows, I would be terrible at it. But she doesn't get marked on extra-curriculars, does she?

She sounds like an amazing person. She is clearly dedicated and very hard working.

But this is why she needs to get the best support. Belittling her course materials is not doing that. Belittling her tutor is not doing that. And I think assuming university is all about undergraduates is not going to do that. People aren't saying that to be harsh, honestly. It seems as if it'd be kinder, if you are a teacher, to be available all the time and to help them out with finding all the answers, including answers about admin. But actually, that's not helping in the long run. If you do that, the student won't learn.

I have not taught long enough to know if this is normal, but most of my students know when their deadlines are, how long I should take to mark things, etc. These are basics to them. Granted, I know lecturers encourage them to read the handbook - but if that's not so at your daughter's university, she will steal a march if she is more organized than the rest!

None of this is intended as an attack on her. Honestly it's not. It's just that you sound as if you are pushing her in a particular direction that's not really fair given how HE works.

[MagratGarlik]

Maybe I'm just being thick (probably), but I haven't really noticed anyone making any "attack" on your DD. It would seem to me that you started a thread saying, (paraphrased) well the lecturer doesn't have my support when she goes galavanting off to the States.

Many of the academics on this forum have commented to try to put things from the academics perspective. Working conditions for academics are not good at the moment and have not been for some time. This is why I (and many others) have left academia, or UK academia. Academics have the right to strike about their working conditions. Yes, this will inconvenience some people (but not particularly much tbh), but a strike which doesn't cause any inconvenience is surely pointless?

Fwiw, in the recent series of 2 hour strikes at Dp's institution, staff who participated were docked a full days pay if they striked for only 2 hours.

[UptheChimney]

I think you're misunderstanding the way a thread can develop. To me, it turned from advice specifically for your daughter into a more general discussion about the conditions of the contemporary university.

Most of my comments were general, and framed as such. Although I did remark, specifically, that I think you & your DD have misunderstood what the lecturer will be doing over the Easter vacation. It's unlikely to be a "paid lecture tour of the US," unless your DD's tutor is Simon Schama.

Online, we often need to work harder to understand tone, I think.

[UptheChimney]

Fwiw, in the recent series of 2 hour strikes at Dp's institution, staff who participated were docked a full days pay if they striked for only 2 hours

It may get worse: some universities are talking about docking all pay for all days of a marking embargo, even though teaching is only a third of our stated duties. We'll still be doing admin, teaching (other than sending marks to the central admin people), and researching.

This is punitive and will bully most union members into not participating because academic salaries are not such that people have many savings.

[mercibucket]

oh great! where did you hear that?

my uni is now covered in posters so everyone should know about it. it was only formalised as an option a few weeks ago afaik

[MillyMollyMama]

I actually started the thread on the possibility of the lecturers' strike. I realise threads can develop and clearly developed it myself as I introduced the marking issue. However I am not sure that warrants my DD being described in the way she has been. She is very organised and obviously knows her deadlines and definitely does not expect lecturers to be available at all times to answer admin questions. How did anyone infer this from what I posted? I am not pushing her in any direction. She makes her own decisions and stands by the consequences. Boarding school teaches a lot about self reliance and getting on with people. It was the lecturer who said why she had not marked their work and gave a reason for it. I am grateful to posters who gave information on how universities work regarding vacations and lecturing abroad. I will freely admit I had no idea about how it works these days and I certainly appreciate the issues involved.

I said she was involved in university life to demonstrate that she not a passive person. We do actually know this is not relevant to the degree!
I think that is enough of me musing about a possible strike. However I do wish posters had not said things about my DD which are undeserved and it lowers the quality if the debate to make it personal.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, come on! I did try to explain myself but you're changing your story now.

You said your DD didn't know the timescale for marking because she considered the handbook to be 'antique'.

Now you say she did know.

People responded about lecturers because your post was, clearly unintentionally, quite rude. I know that's because you didn't realize what the situation was. But storming back in to accuse us of being rude about your DD is a bit daft in the circumstances.

The reason I mentioned passivity is because you yourself, repeatedly, made a great virtue of the fact your DD doesn't consult the rule book. And I wanted to point out that this is not a virtue. It is in fact something likely to hamper her learning. That is not equivalent to me saying your DD is a terrible person - I pointed out that this is an issue I think a fair few students have. I find it really worrying and I think it's unfair they've been brought up to behave this way.

[MillyMollyMama]

And I do accept what you are saying LRD. I also apologise to all if I have become a bit too defensive. The "Mum" in me just jumped too the fore!!!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Fair enough.

And I got defensive too, I think (and probably others did, because of the title which made me feel concerned that this is how people see it). It's really worrying thinking about the future of HE teaching.

[systemsaddict]

Just as a point of info we had a regional union person here this week who said strike pay of £50/day will be paid from the union strike fund to anyone who is docked a full day's pay for partial performance for the marking boycott, and the action would also immediately be scaled up in those institutions.

[MagratGarlik]

That still would not cover a full day's salary, though.

[SlowlorisIncognito]

£50 a day is reasonable to survive on though, and some accademic staff do have some other income- e.g. from books they have published, acting as expert witnesses, consultancy and so on.

I don't agree with lecturers being docked all their pay for refusing to mark work- but as a student without much money, being payed £50 a day seems like it should be survivable on. However, if I was being docked all my pay, I would not want to do things like accompany students on field trips (would that be allowed?).

I'm still hoping everything can be resolved some other way (ideally accademic staff getting a pay rise).

[MoominIsWaitingToMeetHerMiniMe]

As a student waiting for marks from December, I can't get angry at the striking lecturers. I'm angry at the fact that my caring, passionate, extremely intelligent lecturer faces compulsory redundancy.

However I am interested to hear that its the Easter holidays everywhere... We start our 2 week break on the 11th April

[JanineStHubbins]

£50 a day is reasonable to survive on though, and some accademic staff do have some other income- e.g. from books they have published, acting as expert witnesses, consultancy and so on.

Ha! If only! Do you have any idea how puny the royalties are in academic publishing? The vast majority of working academics do not moonlight as expert witnesses. In fact, there is an insidious trend whereby academics are increasingly giving their time and expertise for free, in the name of the impact agenda (for example, media comment/interviews).

[traininthedistance]

£50 a day is reasonable to survive on though, and some accademic staff do have some other income- e.g. from books they have published, acting as expert witnesses, consultancy and so on.

Yes, just reiterating Janine's post! Most academics don't get royalties for books (most don't even sell through their initial print runs so there are no royalties anyway - the average initial print run of a monograph in the humanities is less than 400 copies and most of those are sold to libraries). Colleagues of mine who have written books that actually sell actual copies (eg. textbooks or books that get paperbacked) get royalties in the range of £30-50 per year if they're really lucky...! Hardly enough to form a second income! And only a very few academics ever act as expert witnesses. That's hardly likely for the vast majority of lecturers. And consultancy? If only!

Slowloris £50 doesn't even cover the cost of my rent averaged per day (in the SE - but on a tiny 2-bed house - not exactly luxurious!)

[MagratGarlik]

£50 per day is not even going to cover the costs for childcare where staff have more than 1 child in nursery and do bare in mind they'll need childcare because they will still be carrying out all their other functions required of the job. £50 per day is only slightly above minimum wage, so perhaps highly qualified academics shouldn't expect to earn more than those working in

As for other academic activities... I edited a book once, for which the publishers paid THE UNIVERSITY, not me the princely sum of £1000. I saw not a penny of that. DP and I are currently busy with 2 book chapters, which we are writing together. Big publisher, payment - they'll let us choose a text book each from their range. I am on the Editorial Boards of three different international journals (again, big publishers) - I don't get paid a penny for it (but if I'm lucky I might get more free calendars for Christmas from them). I also sit on a couple of advisory panels in my field, something I again don't get paid for, other than expenses to travel down to London for meetings. These are all typical activities that academics do as part of their jobs, not as add-ons. I continue to do them, even though I have now left academia because I am still research active within my field (yes, in a consultancy capacity - but my previous academic contact had a cap consultancy), so they are still activities relevant to my current work. They are not activities which get paid though.

[mercibucket]

they are not paid 50 pounds!!

their employer wont pay them anything

this comes from the union, from its own funds

[MagratGarlik]

No, I'm well aware of that, I know they are not paid £50/day routinely (having been on a 'permanent' contract for a decade) .

However, it was expressed as, oh well, at least they will get £50 per day whilst not doing marking. The fact that this is nothing more than a token gesture seems to be lost because after all academics are too busy moonlighting on their other highly paid activities (which clearly stop them from doing their marking in the first place....)

[mercibucket]

i know, magrat, that you know , just not sure everyone quite realised that

[MagratGarlik]

Sorry - I thought it was aimed at me!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn, but I wonder if the impact agenda partly has to do with people thinking this about academics? I might be really naive, but my supervisor was saying that even when she started out, it would not be unusual for someone good not to publish a book for ten or more years after their PhD, too. So maybe people see academics getting into all these seemingly 'extra' things like outreach, and think that these are moneyspinners?

[daffodildays]

£50 a day does not even cover my childcare costs. I am a single parent, and I am not in a promoted post. I think I have earned just around £500 in five or so years from published work. I love my job, but more importantly I need it. I am just about scraping by, atm. I cannot afford to strike.

I actually do understand the frustration of the OP. Teaching is not valued; research and international reputation are. Of course, research and international excellence inform and improve teaching, but there is often a two tier system. I am not sure that students, collectively, really should accept coming second.

That said, if I had a pound for everytime I said, read the handbook, I would be a bit richer.

[UptheChimney]

some accademic staff do have some other income- e.g. from books they have published

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Royalties received on 4 books over the last 10 years don't even cover the costs of copyright permissions for illustrations in just one of my books.

[traininthedistance]

I was once teaching a class on Marx and at the end of the class the general conversation diverted onto a colleague's new book, and the students in the class were all assuming (as Slowloris did) that academics earned a tidy sum in royalties from their books. I then disabused them of this notion and explained how academic publishing works, and there was a stunned silence. After a pause, one of the students said: "But how awful - do you know you are all alienated from your labour?" And they departed in silence, looking at me with great pity and horror

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

That's brilliant. Damn, I wish I'd know than story earlier ... I taught Marx just a few weeks ago, I could've worked it in nicely - maybe with a begging bowl on the desk?

TBF, I don't think slow was assuming anyone earns 'a tidy sum' from publishing - she was just mentioning other sources of income and I do think it's not at all illogical people would think these things were lucrative, is it?