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Students 'May Not Graduate'
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Heres the link
Luckily I'm not going to be affected by this by being a second year and having no lecturers on strike. I have to say though I am not with the lecturers on this. Surely higher pay would mean higher fees for students. Theyve been offered a 12% rise...way above inflation. There not exactly making themselves popular among students are they? Selfish to do it at this time of year if you ask me. I have friends who are currently shitting themselves as they dont know if they can even graduate.
If they cant graduate students should get their fees given back though, after all we've payed for the service of the lecturers...
Luckily I'm not going to be affected by this by being a second year and having no lecturers on strike. I have to say though I am not with the lecturers on this. Surely higher pay would mean higher fees for students. Theyve been offered a 12% rise...way above inflation. There not exactly making themselves popular among students are they? Selfish to do it at this time of year if you ask me. I have friends who are currently shitting themselves as they dont know if they can even graduate.
If they cant graduate students should get their fees given back though, after all we've payed for the service of the lecturers...
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I read somewhere that the 12.6% pay rise offer would cancel out financial gains made by universities following the introduction of top-up fees. So fees will definitely rise soon.
It will not affect students going in to graduate jobs as everybody is in the same boat and students can request references and grade estimates. The whole world won't go on hold for this, employers will not stop employing.
I am on the lecturer's side for this, I support the action. I was in a student union meeting this week about it where we talked to union members. The UK education system needs more money, the lecturers are on the same wages as a person starting their second year as a primary school teacher.
Striking, as always is a last resourt. No, it will not affect people going on to do Masters degrees either, it is just that we will not be getting the paper that says "I passed [insert degree here] with a 2:1" or whatever.
Why don't they strike in August?
They wouldn't have anything to strike against, no marking at that time of year and they're off anyway.
It won't affect students currently in the final year at our uni, they have no written finals...
Got to agree with GWST, well said
Strikes in Higher Education
I think everyone will graduate eventually it's just we may not get to find out for a while and the classifications may take longer. It is more likely to effect those entering grade-dependant graduate training schemes or going on to do Masters degrees (especially those who need a certain grade for getting sponsership).
Which is good, because if I didn't pass this year because of some stupid strike, I'd go ballistic.
Do you think a 12.6% pay rise is unreasonable?
And you might support the strike but not everybody in the AUT does. AUT members at St Andrews and Aberdeen voted to end the strike action – but were overruled by AUT Scotland.
If it’s not resolved extremely quickly the reputation of British universities overseas will be severely damaged. Many overseas students have shelled out £50k+ to study here and universities receive a lot of money from international students – this is not playing well abroad and international students and their sponsors aren’t going to be impressed. And this does affect students, if this year’s students are given a degree on the basis of previous results or predictions it’s invariably going to be interpreted by some as a ‘dodgy’ degree on their CV and it hardly helps combat accusations of falling academic standards. Many students will have graduate jobs lined up dependent upon at least a 2.1, if they receive an ‘unclassified’ degree it’s going to affect their employment or leave them employed on some kind of interim basis adding to their stress. And with students worrying about this as well as revision it obviously is affecting students.
My department has all but 6 lecturers taking action and we've heard rumours that our exams will be written by university management (who have no expertise in my subject). This is disgraceful.
Dispite all of this, I (and alot of my fellow students) are fully in support of the lecturers and the AUT. They lodged their pay claim back in October, and were ignored. They told the universities that they were balloting for strike action in February (5 months later) and were ignored. They started this strike action in March, and universities have dragged their heals. Its the UCEA that have been causing the problem. They've had 8 months to deal with this and solve it, but instead they havn't bothered.
All the lecturers in my department work exceptionally hard. They work long hours, and are extreemly helpful. They deserve this pay rise, and don't deserve to be ignored. Yes, its affecting my course (and my final degree), but it'll benefit students in the long run.
I can only hope that UCEA take their heads out of their arses and actually do something to resolve the situation before it decends into full strike action.
In simple terms, yes. They were promised 1/3 of the new money. In fact, lecturers pay was one of the main reasons why all new students have to pay these extortionate fees. They deserve the money.
This seems really unfair. (But actually no of my part-time lecturers are on strike anyway and these seem worst off).
This is a growing problem... lecturers leaving university and going into better paid jobs. Eventually only those that can't get jobs in industry will be lecturing, the quality of the degrees will decrease and it'll become worthless. This is not an answer to the situation.
They started their action early specifically to avoid this situation. They lodged their pay claim in october. The UCEA have had 8 months to solve it and havn't. They didn't even agree to meet the lecturers until APRIL! Its disgraceful.
Of course academics at top universities here would get paid similar amounts to their counterparts at US Ivy League universities if our top unis became private non-profit institutions as the likes of Harvard and Princeton are. But that would mean changes in working practices that the AUT wouldn’t welcome.
I'd love to know where you got that opinion from. Most of my lecturers start work at 8 in the morning, leave well after 6 (some work much later into the evenings as well as evening). Also, my lecturers only get 30 days holiday a year. Hence why they deserve better pay.
This is 12.6% over THREE years. That IS 4%.
Alot of people are worrying because there are exams, that won't go ahead. Some universities have already cancelled alot of exams... Aberystwyth for example has cancelled 23 exams already (decisions haven't been made on the others yet). We have no idea whats happening at Swansea. There are rumours, but nothing confirmed. I also know for sure that not a single one of my exam papers has been written.
Dispite all of this, support for the action at Swansea is strong. The Student Union held a student meeting last week, and pretty much everyone who bothered coming along supported the strike. The University was invited to the meeting, but they declined, stating it wasn't important.
so true
most people i know are trying to get into banking not carrying on with their studies
lectururers havent had any pay increases for ages now so in the past 20 years they've effectively taken a pay cut due to inflation
if i had to spend £14k/year on my university education, which is what my course costs really (not including living costs which are another £4000/yr) would i really go into academic or public sector work?
My tutor wasn't, said she thought it was stupid to put student's education in jeopardy, and just went and marked all our stuff anyway.
It's all just a scare, also. I mean, like the UK is actually gonna let a whole load of students not be able to graduate. It just won't happen. Cause if it did, the entire nation would be pinging Blair's tits till he said, "Yeah...alright then...More pay."