AUT strike resolved, but the arguments continue
See here. This means my exams will at least get marked, which is probably a good thing.
Adam has already posted on the AUT strike. Though I must say I disagree with what he has said.
If I may be pedantic, the issue was NOT that students would not get degrees, they would just get them later than usual. Indeed, the University of Birmingham, where we attend, was going to have degree ceremonies in July regardless. A small issue perhaps, but it's always good to report the facts correctly.
I also disagree with the Niall Ferguson article. He implies universities ought to be privatised, sneering that the fact Oxford and Cambridge are in the Top 20 universities in the world is "pretty impressive for a state-run education service", a remark that makes me very angry indeed. Then again, I have an aversion to big business, based on my first rule of big business. That is that big businesses are bastards, only interested in themselves, not in the wider good.
Adam labels the AUT strike "disgraceful", Ferguson calls it "disgusting". I wouldn't expect anything less from Ferguson. Why bother letting other lecturers get extra pay, when you can earn zillions writing books on how great empire's are? It's this "I'm alright Jack" attitude that typifies his Thatcherite leanings. It sickens me.
Lecturer's pay has fallen 40% in real terms over the past twenty years, when they are doing more work. So a pay rise of 23% over three years is quite reasonable in the circumstances. Especially with the extra income universities will receive from top-up fees. The extra money doesn't have to come from there either. Birmingham's Vice-Chancellor, Michael Sterling, earns £192, 000 a year. If we remove him, that pays for six decent lecturer's wages. Then the university can be run by the lecturers for the lecturers - to actually impart learning rather than become a money-making machine.
It's hardly "disgraceful" to strike in these circumstances. One can quibble about the timing of the strike, but a strike must cause disruption for anyone to take the demands of the strikers seriously. And most students I have spoken to sympathise with the aims of the AUT, although the timing could have been better. The NUS line, rather than being "spineless", would seem to replicate the views of students when it says that they support the aims of students, but are concerned about the "impact it is having on its members". It blames the universities for not getting around the table enough to find an amicable solution, which is a decent enough view to take.
I hope that this pay rise of 13.1% over three years is just the start of lecturers pay finally surpassing, in real terms, what it was twenty years ago. Our esteemed Vice Chancellor has said that jobs will have to go if universities have to stump up extra cash for wages. I know who's job I'd remove first - his.
-posted by Roy
