The upcoming strikes

[mrsrhodgilbert]

I have a dd in her third year at a university where there will be strike action for the next four weeks starting on Thursday. I've only been aware of this for a few days and I've seen nothing about it in the press. Dd doesn't yet know how it will affect her, she has one lecturer who covers her two modules this term and hasn't asked her if she will be striking. Literature from the university says they can ask their lecturers if they will be striking but the lecturer doesn't have to answer, so all a bit uncertain.

I'm just interested to know what your dc have been told if anything and what might happen re completing final modules without teaching and indeed if final exams could be cancelled. In that case what would happen?

If we still had student grants, and so your dcs education was being funded from tax, would that change your view on the strike?
Considering the latest stats suggest that over 70% of loans will be written off
the Taxpayer IS funding University

When I saw kids on the news running up a £50k debt to do a drama degree with 8 hpw contact time I had to wonder
WHY ?

damn you talkin coming back with your facts and common sense just when I had flounced.

Now, that PWC valuation if you please... I'll get my cuppa.

soupynorman
I just went through that First Actuarial report.
Most of it makes sense, but their opinion that the scheme is not in fact in deficit is predicated on the following assumption on page 11
working life is longer than retired life, let’s say the ratio of working life to retired life is 3:2
Which I consider to be utter bollocks.

Lecturers retire at 65 ish and start drawing their pensions, having worked for 30 years ish.
The assumption is that most of them are dead by age 80
which might be the case for the population at large, but judging by the Alumnus letters I get from my Alma Mater, is well short of how long academics live.

They pointedly say on page 3 that they have not used an actuarial basis to assess the future funding needs of the scheme.
Because they were paid to say that the scheme was OK

Sorry but I do not accept that report.
The Scheme is in deficit
but it does not need to close

As someone who has to pay my child's tuition fees myself, albeit with Home/EU status, I am furious at my daughter's loss of her few contact hours this week, in her Final year - but I am directing my disgust towards the university management, not the academics who are forced to strike.

bloody hell !!!

link to PWC report please. ideally with passages highlighted.

I never thought I could be so excited about an actuarial valuation.

dh has made a contribution to the strike hardship fund....

My day job is trying to make esoteric finance legislation seem relevant to people. Hence why my day rate keeps going up - as analysing disparate data trends and turning them on their head it not yet something AI enjoys doing

well take your moment talkinpeace, take your moment.

(but meanwhile can I have that report)

It was not me that mentioned the PWC and EY reports, it was @soupynorman
I'm waiting to see them too as then I can check them out

ah ok I shall wait for soupy who is a worth debating adversary

I shall get my knitting.

worthy...

I don’t think the PWC or EY report has been published. They rated the covenant as “Strong” which the Pensions Regulator rejected.

Sequence of events detailed here with some further documentation here.

UUK and individual universities are not very forthcoming with publishing details of what has transpired. There are a number of FOI requests pending as far as I’m aware. At least one university claims to have “lost” its response to the USS consultation which has precipitated this disputed.

blast.

sorry, she said she read the "First Acturial" report.

can we see that?

It's on this thread - yesterday 22.20.

If you scroll back I’ve posted the link up thread.

I am surprised that the Pension Regulator is treating the scheme in the same way as a commercial one
it is much more akin to an LGPS
and thus it seems odd that a deficit of only 17% is being used as a pretext to switch to DC
there is clearly a LOT of correspondence between the Trustees, the Regulator and the Employers with the larges liabilities that could do with being made transparent.

Daylight is a great disinfectant (as I say regularly)

Yeah, sorry, I got the First Actuarial report from the link kindly supplied by Soupy

Much of what has been pieced together has been as a result of UUK or some of the universities publishing documents by mistake on their website. Or sending an email intended for VCs only to all staff

soupy
If you know of anybody who has access to them, feel free to PM me any link and I'll assess them without letting on where I saw them
as I have no axe to grind but am a saddo for debunking reports

So, these people who clearly couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery, are trusted to interpret the status of the academics' pension deficit correctly and act appropriately thereon?

“Much of what has been pieced together has been as a result of UUK or some of the universities publishing documents by mistake on their website. Or sending an email intended for VCs only to all staff grin”

Ooh...
FOI request outstanding yousay?