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AUT Strikes

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
Just got this e-mail...

TO ALL STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Academic staff, who are members of the Association of University Teachers
(AUT), are going on strike throughout England on February 24th and then
throughout the United Kingdom on February 25th. In addition, from 1st March
they will boycott all forms of assessment for students at all levels. This
means that undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of
Liverpool face the possibility of not graduating. The National Union of
Students (NUS) and the Liverpool University Guild of Students (Guild) fully
support their lecturers in taking this action.

AUT and NUS are campaigning jointly to improve the resources available to
Higher Education and to improve the conditions under which access to
universities may be widened. It has been accepted by government that about
10 billion pounds is needed to repair the university infrastructure, build
modern research facilities, hire additional staff to teach the vastly
increased number of students, and pay lecturers a fair salary. The Prime
Minister and other senior politicians have publicly acknowledged that
lecturers' salaries are far too low: they have not risen in real terms in
20 years, and now stand 40% lower than those of similar, highly qualified
professionals.

Why are students supporting their lecturers in taking industrial action?

NUS and Guild believe that the deterioration in teaching resources and the
quality of education, which has accompanied the erosion in academic
salaries and increased workloads, can no longer be tolerated. Short-term
disruption in teaching is preferable if it brings the justified long-term
rewards to staff and revitalises their teaching.

What should YOU do?

If you are a student you should be very angry about the disruption to your
studies that will be caused by the AUT industrial action, particularly if
you are a final-year (undergraduate or postgraduate) student. If essays,
project or laboratory work, and tutorial work are not set or assessed, you
risk losing the essential feedback to enable you to learn and improve your
performance. And if final examinations are not set or marked it is hard to
see how you will graduate.

If you want to help us end this disruptive action quickly, please write to
your Vice Chancellor [Professor Drummond Bone] expressing your anger and
asking that he take action to ensure that negotiations recommence. Please
also write to your MP and express your outrage at the lack of funding for
universities that has precipitated this industrial action. Ask how it is
that government recognises the injustice of the low pay for academic staff,
but do nothing about it when they, alone, control the purse strings.

AUT are starting their rally at 12 outside Senate House and the Public
Meeting in the Guild of Students will begin immediately afterwards at 1pm
in the Courtyard. EVERYONE IS MOST WELCOME.


First I've really heard of this! Any other unis facing similar chaos?
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah we've got this happening up here too, but it hasn't been very well publicised. A couple of my lecturers have warned me that they're not going to be teaching on Wednesday, but not all of them so I don't know what to expect.

    As for the NUS striking as well, I personally don't think it'll make that much of an impression if a load of students just stay in bed all day instead of going to lectures. I mean, we do that all the time anyway!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Looking at the Education section of the Guradian I cannot help but notice the largwe number of job offers for lecturers/professors etc with what seem to me to be very goo salaries. Most professors seem to get £40,000, can you complain too much when you get that much?

    If I don't graduate I will f**king slap someone..............
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah, got it here too. It would be on the days when I have so few seminars.

    I dunno. If it all goes tits up, I think I might just go study in Australia or something.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have a seminar on a Thursday, so they choose Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Bastards :mad:

    I support them though- university wages are shit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yeah, we have it on tuesday and wednesday as well...

    no shitty boring classes - yay!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i got Monday 23rd and wed 25th off. I got an email from the uni saying "a small number of lectures may be disrupted". Then i got an internal mail from the maths dep saying ALL lectures and tutorials where cancled! LOL

    "small number AKA all"

    Bopz
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    leeds uni have hopped on the 'no assessment after 1st march' bandwagon.

    this annoys me.

    of course we are still expected to hand in our dissertations on the 10th of march, but they will not be marked until the strike has been resolved.

    i agree that in some cases lecturers are underpaid (although having heard what our lecturers earn for teaching around 10 hours a week, i really don't think they have anything to complain about), but why cause disruption to the students? can't they disrupt the people who decide their pay, or the government?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    well none of my bloody tutorials or lectures were cancelled!! but i decided to support the strike and not go in anyway :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah Liverpool had them Tues/Wed. I still got up early yesterday (i.e. 10:30), because there was some work I intended to do, and I needed to go into town to find a friend a birthday present. So I got the bus down, and whilst I was there decided to be nosey and see what was going on at Uni. Jenny told me that two blokes were standing outside the library with placards, and when she got to them they said "This is a picket line, and we'd appreciate it if you didn't go into the library". Oddly this seemed amusing, but she ignored them! (I had no need to go to any library - I do a dossy subject!). It was very quiet down there with lots of signs around, but the main meeting was at 1pm which I didn't have time to stick around for.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Essex had strikes tuesday and wednesday. I had nothing cancelled on tuesday as none of the maths lecturers were striking, though had an economics lecture cancelled wednesday. It didn't make a huge difference as normally I don't go anyway.
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