University Strikes

[ILikeTrains]

I feel like I should be posting this on the AIBU thread but I'm bloody furious that there's going to be another round of strikes. This will be getting on for a months worth of education that these students are missing out on, this could affect their outcomes over all.

I'm sure the unions have very valid concerns for their members but who is the strike really harming? These students only get one go at this - the staff have their degrees already (and probably not at the same expense that these students have).

I'm so angry that the people most affected by this are the students and the have no control at all over this situation.

Some people really seem to be struggling with the concept of what a strike is and why - as a last resort - people take part in it.

I speak as a parent to a student in her final year, too.

Social workers, nurses, medics and teachers rarely, if ever, strike.

But they are voting with their feet and leaving these professions altogether, recruitment in all three of those areas is difficult for managers. Wonder why that might be?

The structuring of the strike days is also clearly designed to be disruptive - although only a limited number of actual days, by increasing the days each week you have a full 4 weeks of increasing disruption so it'll be difficult to catch up as support will fall away over the month.

I don't care so much about the costs or getting a refund, I just want some reassurance it won't adversely affect my DCs education. He's first year but that should be setting up his learning structure and getting him ready for years 2-3. Not ideal getting that disrupted in both semesters.

Nurses, midwives, ahp and medics have had numerous strikes over the last few years. And it's the patients who were affected which ultimately affects the nhs/govt. It worked to a certain extent.

The effect of a patient dying because of a strike would be catastrophic for the employers so this gives the strikers more clout. Obviously the effect of a student getting a 2:2 rather than a 2:1 does not hand quite the same newsworthiness , in fact generally the wider public don’t care and this is the problem the UCU have .

As a wider point isn't that exactly the point of strikes - to impact and inconvenience others? They wouldn't work if that wasn't the case

I think it's wrong for people working in education to strike.

And I wonder how many people have lost their jobs due to rail strikes. In December the guards on SWR were on strike for a month (they were reimbursed by the unions so didn't really lose any pay) over who pushes a button to open doors on the trains. Utterly ludicrous unless you're the RMT and worried about losing your influence. But if people can't get to work they eventually lose their jobs.

I don't disagree with a right to strike. But I find it difficult to believe that HE staff are so badly off it's their only option although I know that zero hour contracts ARE a problem despite the assertion of a pp.

And I fundamentally disagree with picket lines. Stay away from work if you want to but don't try to intimidate your colleagues into not working or indeed the customers/clients/students into not using the services.

Am wondering what the average attendance rate is like for lectures. At my daughter's RG uni it is depressingly low.

Am wondering what the average attendance rate is like for lectures. At my daughter's RG uni it is depressingly low.

But are the lectures recorded and therefore accessible at a later date / time of day? If the lecture wasn't given because the lecturer was on strike, I wonder whether those who never turn up in the flesh will complain just as much as those who actually attend?

It's shit. Universities are being managed by morons. My department is very profitable but the money is squandered. Squandered. And we have no say. Thoroughly disgusted.

i am at a RG and watch most lectures online anyway, easier to take notes and pause then (also as i commute, avoids long periods when i have to hang around on campus)

Our lectures generally let us know that they will be striking or not, but they don't have to, but that would annoy me more, I travel for an hour to attend a tutorial and its been a waste, luckily that is usually avoided.

At DD's university it is a couple of days before the lectures go online. DD enjoys the social aspect of going to lectures as well. Also, if you miss too many lectures they do a welfare check on the student to make sure they are OK.

Ah we don't have attendance checks in the lectures. And the videos go up 30 mins after the end.
Hopefully find out this week which subjects affected but assume it will be the same ones as last semester (as still doing sane courses with same people)

am at a RG and watch most lectures online anyway,

That’s really cool-are most lectures put online? Is there no expectation to attend?

ONe of my student sons when I mentioned the strikes yesterday said he was really looking forward to them by the way.... laughing as I type - lazy so and so. HIs twin had been at 2 lectures that day and does seem to have quite a few - BSc.

I assume at my university all lectures go online as all are recorded. We get the slides ahead so you can print out or download.
No expectation to attend any I assume, as long as you attend the tutorials (and then show you can answer the questions set, I have sat in tons of those where people don't want to speak at all, it's depressing, no debate or lively discussion, just people reading off a prepared answer which I swear they don't actually understand)

That’s really cool-are most lectures put online? Is there no expectation to attend?

All our lectures are recorded and put online. We were assured beforehand that it wouldn’t have an effect on attendance, and that students would mainly use it for revision purposes. It has had a catastrophic effect on attendance - dropping to 25-30% by the end of semester. Students also complain about not feeling part of the community but what do they expect if they rarely attend lectures and dont even have to enter the library to access materials (humanities subject). It’s been a disaster, even allowing for all the arguments around accessibility.

That's so interesting Agilelass. Is the ill-effect on the students' experience - lack of community, isolation etc - or do you think there is there an academic effect as well?

If it's the former, I suppose there could be other ways to build community (not sure what, but more concerted efforts to have students join in voluntary activities etc?) - and interestingly there are some posts from on mn suggesting that lectures aren't very sociable places to be anyway. Or do you think there is an academic disadvantage as well of non-attendance?
The university experience does seem to be changing in a number of ways - recording lectures is one of them I suppose, and I can certainly see the accessibility arguments. But I can see the community/isolation arguments as well.

I feel for the students, but the whole purpose of the strikes is to be disruptive to the universities, the anger shouldn't be directed at the staff but the institutions which have forced the staff into the decision of striking. Staff often care greatly for students and they dont want to impact students learning but if they are not disruptive and put pressure on the institutions nothing will happen, as the unions will have already tried and been shot down as striking is a last resort.
Staff dont want to strike, it cuts their pay and causing them difficulties, but likewise they have a right for fair working considerations and for pensions, pay and contracts which reflects what they do. And they work a lot more then most people realise. Most staff in academia work evenings and weekends to keep on top of workloads so I dont begrudge them at all the need to strike (and I've been inconvenienced by strikes myself).

All our lectures are recorded as standard and presentations are put online prior to the session. However, all sessions are attendance monitored so we've not seen a huge drop in attendance.

I think there is an academic effect, yes. We see verbatim quotes from lectures creeping into essays more and more, and in my view students increasingly see lectures as all they need to know on a topic, rather than the starting point for their own independent study. Everything is totally instrumentalised anyway - “will this be on the exam” is the logic underpinning students’ work, for the most part. That attitude is a consequence of the fees regime and the commercialisation of higher education, so in many respects the students aren’t really to blame. But it has a deadening effect on university teaching.

You raise some interesting points AgileLass. Do you think that modern technology is contributing to more students feeling isolated, and the resultant increase in mental health issues?

I agree with everything AgileLass says about lecture recordings, and the frustrating thing is that so many of us warned that there would be precisely these consequences when the technology was installed.

Absolutely, Ginfordinner - also in the way social media presents an image of everyone else having a fantastic time. It can lead to a lot of pressure.

Interestingly, i only teach postgraduate students and they use the recordings very differently - probably how they were intended to be used!

Everything is totally instrumentalised anyway - “will this be on the exam” is the logic underpinning students’ work, for the most part. That attitude is a consequence of the fees regime and the commercialisation of higher education

Interesting.

Have the high fees had an impact on results-or are they about the same as they always were? What about course completion-can you boot people off the course if they’re not working hard? What happens to their fees-do they lose everything they’ve paid?