Fighting our way through 1st year uni (starting Sept 17)

[HSMMaCM]

Continuing the previous thread.

Exams, assessments, essays, etc.

Support, or lack of it.

Will they all get accommodation for next year and can they cook a balanced meal yet.

DD is frothing about the proposed lecturers strikes - seems like a lot of days if they go ahead.

Have had to 'lecture' b*llock DS about the amount of money he is spending. Knowing his rent was due on 31st and he had received his student loan a couple of weeks ago I was checking he had enough to cover it (having just sent him the calculated shortfall). Turns out he's been living it up big style since he went back at the start of Jan. It was exam period but his course didn't have exams - nor seemingly did a number of his flatmates, so although he had 3 essays to write he has been doing a lot of expensive socialising. He's gone through hundreds of £££ in 3 weeks. I had already increased his weekly allowance last term after he pleaded poverty but he's been told now he's getting no more. Get a job or stay in and study was my message to him!

Ahhhh! Accommodation stuff for next year is beyond annoying. Ds needs a massive boot up the bum! He missed out on asking his friends who got set up with folk from other courses last term. The other day I asked him when his accommodation fair was. He looked it up. It had been the day before. 🙄
Then he finally got round to going to their offices and got told to go to their website. Which is unnecessarily complicated. Message replies going to wrong message. People messaging many times on separate boards. I know he'll find somewhere but it would be good if he got somewhere he liked, with a group he liked. They have no uni halls after first year. Everyone in authority says there's no hurry but all the students think there is (except ds apparently) and so everyone (else) gets sorted early.

tobee I wouldn't stress too much about accommodation. My DDs are both second years and said lots of rooms get advertised in the summer when people try and sell their accommodation on due to dropping out. It does mean he may be sharing with strangers but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Also they say that their course chats sometimes have rooms posted on.

@bigTillyMint - DS sounded hopeful that he may get a day without lectures on his birthday due to strikes!

Thanks hells. I've been a bit cheered up by ds saying the website has updated and loads of messages have appeared apparently they'd been stuck waiting to be moderated. So there a loads in a similar boat. Ds needs to be less diffident dozy. When dd was a second year she got lucky with someone dropping out of group one of her friends was in.

I can see both sides of the strike issue. I am in the USS pension scheme and my pension will be very depleted by the proposed new defined contributions scheme (and at my age it matters). However I won't be on strike. Those striking will lose a full day's pay for each day they don't work.

On the other hand, our DCs are paying over £9k and when you have as few lectures and seminars as DS, every one counts. Brum hasn't yet decided whether to strike (they might do on the second ballot). The strikes are very likely to go ahead as this isn't an issue that is going to be resolved any time soon.

A friend of mine is quitting rather than get stuck in a different pension scheme. It's a big deal.

Of course the lecturers should carry on with our kids though, because that's all we care about

Are all of the unis on strike? Have not asked DD but she doesn't always answer.

Here is a list of unis on strike UCU announces 14 strike dates at 61 universities in pensions row

14 days of strikes - out of lets say 205 days ( 41 weeks ) they are at uni for.

That 6.8% of their year or £612 worth of the years tuition fee.

That 6.8% of their year or £612 worth of the years tuition fee.

I don't think that is a fair way to calculate it. University study involves more than attending lectures or tutorials. Students will still be able to access the libraries and online resources, use the uni computers and wifi, etc. I would expect students would still have plenty of work to do, even if (some) lectures are cancelled.

I hope the impending strikes concentrate management's minds and they make a reasonable offer before 22nd February.

I asked DS1 what he thought of the strikes. His reply: "who's striking?"

Guess he not keeping up with the news. Shame on him.

Been really ill with flu and now a particularly nasty ear infection so catching up now. One good but of news is that dd1 has comfortbly passed all 3 of her exams she took this term.
Haven't asked her about strikes because being a dental student means she has a lot of lectures and practicals

Just messaged DS to see if he knows about the strikes as his Uni is on that list - don't suppose he will! We had already arranged to go and visit him on the weekend in the middle of the 1st strike.

That is an awful lot of cancelled lectures. I will ask DD if she is aware.

DH gave DD a lecture on how they are striking for pension rights to protect her future and the rights of others in the future and then told DD to email the vice chancellor and ask them how much they will save per day if the strikes go ahead and how the students will be compensated

DS just rang and said he knew nothing about the strikes at all until I messaged him. He doesn't have that many lectures so won't be affected as much as other courses.

Gosh, 14 days without lectures due to strike action from 22nd February. I just told DD this was likely to affect her Uni and she hadn't heard about it. Hopefully there will be some suggestions and structure for how they should use the additional study time, or else they'll have to use their initiative. Possibly some may use the time for an additional trip home, or various other adventures they might come up with!

Have some sympathy as have several friends who are lecturers, but not that much considering the state of my own pension.

I know when dd1 was an undergrad 2 yrs ago and there were several departments under threat( with subsequent redundancies), the students were very supportive of their lecturers and backed any industrial action
I also have several friends who are senior lecturers and Profs in Psychology and their department(s) were also earmarked for cuts....this would then have had a knock on effect that if there are fewer lecturers, the staff student ratio drops and the university ultimately loses its status and less likely to attract the high calibre of students required to keep its (research)funding, also the department loses its accreditation for clinical psychology which would have huge ramifications for the university in general....so I fully support this industrial action
My own ( research based) job is at risk due to cuts in public spending so these are very uncertain and worrying times all round

bigTilly DD isn’t at a Scottish uni; I haven’t come across any other uni only just ready for term 2! At her’s, all courses have exams &/or assessments in Jan. She left a few hours ago & the house seems very quiet. She was telling me their uni is one that will be affected by the strikes.

We are less than impressed by the strikes, I've said to ask how much of a refund will be given 🙄 it'll just cause stress though as the workload has just gone up a few levels.

As for houses, the contract will be signed on Monday for a new build flat.

Whilst I have sympathy with the position the staff are in, it’s been known for years their pension scheme is in significant deficit and therefore some drastic action could easily have been foreseen and planned around. Sticking heads in sand and hoping for magic money fairy to help out won’t work,

Like many others in this country I was impacted years ago by pension scheme changes and had to make changes.

... and it was good old Gordon Brown when he was exchequer who hurt the pension schemes by making dividends earned in pensions taxable.

Agree with Eve, most others in DB schemes have had changes forced on them, myself included, as there is no magic money fairy (to quote Eve) to bail out these schemes in severe deficit.

What do the staff want, to continue with the same scheme and maybe end up with nothing? Surely it is better to make changes now, with the past benefits protected, than try and keep past benefits at same level and the scheme not be able to pay out?

Lots of workers, even in public sector NHS etc have been forced to accept pension changes going forward. It is the only way the schemes can continue to operate.

Why should our DC suffer by all the strikes? My DS does a science, has a full timetable with labs, what happens if they are all cancelled for 4 weeks, does he fail the year when he hasn't completed the required lab quota?