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.

My DS is in his 3rd yr and getting v stressed about the strikes.
He is supportive of the lecturers but is very concerned about the impact on his final grade. He has worked so hard and has secured an offer for a graduate trainee scheme but it is dependent on his final result.
He has always attended the vast majority of lectures / seminars. He is very aware of the 'cost' and would see it as a waste of money not to go.
I've told him to concentrate on what he 'can' do.

Today on Strike Watch (we had reading week last week so weren't in much and they didn't strike)... Megaphone sighted heading to outside a lecture building again this morning, along with what appeared to be the really shit partybag whistles Tesco sell in abundance. Someone's brought along a ghettoblaster and what seems to be Queen's Greatest Hits on tape right outside our faculty's major lecture theatre. I'm hiding in the library because coming out of my first lecture (I was in very early to get in the building and avoid it all) to the noise and people trying to jostle leaflets and stickers all over you was actually very very unpleasant. I can mitigate my anxiety levels to a fairly good extent compared to many who suffer with mental health problems but I was on the brink of going home and staying away for the remaining strike time as it was freaking me out - and I don't really want to have to try to go back into the worst-behaved buildings in a little while.

Kuponut. To be honest, I think you should make arrangements to study away from the University campus whilst the strikes are on. People making some noise to publicise their case and trying to actively engage with people is prefectly normal in strike situations. And you getting stressed about it, whether on your own account or some imaginary other student's behalf is doing you no favours.

Saying you're not trying to harm students while standing outside their lectures with a megaphone - not at the entrances to campus which are fairly funnel-like... is directly trying to piss off students to do all the fighting for you. Likewise standing outside another lecture building with music blaring - it's intentionally a bunch of arses who hate students taking it out on them.

We've been told by uni we'll be penalised for attendance if we don't come in (international students have had warnings that they need to swipe in for non-lectures or bugger up their visas), plus then we feed the loathing of academics on here who view undergraduates as not attending lectures. I can't skip one module at present as we've got a batch of content which is going to run directly up to the exam in a couple of weeks - there's no cram time built into the schedule for this one - it's literally 7 hours on a topic and then the exam the next week.

We're having entrance to the building physically blocked - students being told they're only allowed in if they say they agree with the lecturers. That's not on and it's bloody bullying.

But the reason for the strikes is perfectly valid, and unless they make noise it will be too easy for the HE institutions to ignore them.

Apart from international students, it's very difficult if not impossible for the university to penalise students for not attending during the strike/if lectures are cancelled, and all the institution is doing is attempting to play off the students AGAINST the lecturers to try and weaken the strength of their strike.

Lecturers by no means hate students, they wouldn't be lecturers in that case, but they have a perfectly valid reason to strike and be angry at the institutions they have revolved there lives around treating them like crap.

They have a lot more pay than most people in the UK and many people in the UK have no employer provided pension at all so it gets hard to be sympathetic. If they are making a noise outside the police could pour water over the speakers and ghetto blasters presumably to ensure those wanting to hear a lecture able to hear it.

I'm really not sure where this loathing your talking about is?

we feed the loathing of academics on here who view undergraduates as not attending lectures.

Fact of the matter is a lot of students dont not attend a majority of taught lectures, it's not loathing it's just factual.

It's not to say all students dont attend and that there isn't a large chunk of students who attend every lecture, but many students up in arms about the strikes are students who rarely attend anyway, most student with the self control and commitment to attend every session are also able to recognise the need to self learn and are able to continue with their degrees regardless. I myself had large periods during my undergrad degree where I at one point missed over a month (end of jan until mid march) of lectures and seminars due to severe illness and problems with my medication which knocked me for six, I still finished that year with 75 and put in the extra time to teach myself the required content for the exams and assignments.

Missed content is only a cause to fail in very few situations where either students dont put the work in to teach themselves or in subjects where physical labs and practical work are missed (which I would think academic staff would try to alleviate the damage of missing as contrary to opinion academics care about their students). Anything that can be taught over PowerPoint/presentation can be self taught in your own time.

Xenia Many people have higher incomes than the average, including yourself . This doesn't mean they shouldn't have recourse to industrial action over legitimate concerns about their working conditions or pension provisions. Other people having a hard time doesn't mean one has to put up with rubbish oneself.

Kuponut I hope you are okay. My DD was very intimidated by the strike action when she was a student at Liverpool Uni a year or two ago

@Xenia many junior lecturers earn less the minimum wage once you consider the hours needed in the evenings and weekends to keep on top of work, even senior lecturers once you add up all the additional hours they work outside of mon to fri office hours dont make that much per hour.
PA's in big companies actually earn more pa and work a lot less hours, senior positions in warehouses earn more or the same while working a lot less hours.
For the number of hours a academic staff work the pay does not reflect it at all. Some of the hardest working senior lectures on top band pay, may once you consider the number of hours they work only be earning approx £13 a hour, as 70/80 hour working weeks are not unheard of due to increasing workloads and pressure.

Friends been unable to record work that she needs for a module assessment as all the recording attempts are ruined by whistles from outside the building. Recording needs specialist software only in this computer lab and we have 3 weeks of this left to go... Module leader has confirmed that for what we need to do - recordings with the whistles and air horn on will not work.

Has your friend approached the lecturer and asked them what they propose students do? And leave it to the lecturer to find a solution as if its that bad then I imagine all the other students on the course will be having exactly the same issues with their recordings?

I certanily don't dispute their right to strike or to look for other work but they should not break the law (eg by stopping those lecturers who want to work working, by making a noise outside etc) in the process.

Ruining recordings due to noise outside is not acceptable. Those making a noise nuisance should be arrested and put in jail until they calm down and obey the law.

Depends if they've done their recordings or not already (thankfully I got mine done a couple of weeks ago so it could glare malevolently from my to do list) - think my friend gave up for now and is going to have to come in stupidly early or late to do it - which is nice for her.

I'm currently trying to piece together the missed content from this week via a very unintuitive power point (definitely a teaching aid not substitute - one that needs the lecture content to make it make sense), textbooks and google to circulate around the student body so we don't have a huge gap in content covered and our own subject knowledge. Can't cover it all myself - I need some of the terminology clarified - but we've been pretty much hung out to dry by both the striking lecturers and the university itself and while the ones who tend to lead our cohort in terms of finding things out and disseminating information are doing the best we can (we're generally a very close knit bunch - have a couple who'll hang back letting others do the work but the large majority of us tend to chip in and try to get us all through it all intact), we have our limits to what we know and can research without the lecture content to support it.

Sad to hear there are still these issues @Kuponut
I realised that in our uni it's actually much smaller group than in the autumn. Many decided not to strike. Luckily they keep by the entrance and don't disrupt students more than necessary. Re confirmed that uni is not entertaining any refunds nor are they providing covers.

So again. Uni is actually saving money thanks to this strike🙄

Have you spoken to the union as pp suggested about the behaviour of striking group?

Our deadlines have been pushed to after Easter, including ones which were not affected by the strike, which means some of us will wait months for grades and I am trying to work out what the hell are some of the things I will need for exam about.