The UCU Left is a national organisation of University and College Union activists. It is committed to ensuring that the new union has a democratic structure through which members can determine policy, and elected officers and professional officials can be held accountable. It seeks to defend educational equality, and to oppose the consequences of neo-liberal marketisation. It is opposed to all forms of racism, sexism, oppression and imperialism.
UCU Left - Policy Discussion - Academic Related
Please find below a brief introduction to a discussion document produced by a UCU Left member on the subject of Academic Related staff concerns. As this is a discussion document we would welcome your comments and any suggested alterations. The (amended) document will be presented to the next UCU Left members conference and, if appropriate, voted upon as a UCU Left policy statement. Please email your comments to uculeft@btinternet.com
Extracts of draft policy briefing document

To a great extent the concerns of Academic Related staff are much the same as those of all staff in HE and FE whether Academic, Academic Related or support staff.

The key issues are:-

  • Massively increased workloads.

  • Defence of national pay bargaining;

  • Pay - achieving the catch-up element;

  • Workplace bullying and stress;

  • Privatisation of public services;

  • Gordon Brown’s public sector pay freeze;

  • The Government’s attack on pensions;
The underfunded expansion of Higher & Further education has been continuing for some years, our recent HE dispute was an attempt to win the “catch up” element in our salaries which have eroded by 40% over 20 years. The introduction of commercialisation, competition and the market mean that decisions in HE & FE are no longer driven by educational considerations, but rather by the priorities of big business.

Recently we have seen the closure of the Physics department at Reading, and attempts to privatise language centres such as at Newcastle, whilst at the same time higher management have been handed vast increases in salary (THES reported on 24th April that “most of the new money coming into HE would go to higher management”), VCs pay has gone up by 30% in the last few years, and institutions have head hunted the so called “captains of industry”.

During this time academic related staff face staff shortages; a massively increased workload; a job evaluation exercise incorporating harmonisation of terms and conditions and disproportionate amount of red circling; increases in FTCs due to time limited funding; a promise of flexible hours not delivered in reality.

Throughout the HE pay dispute we felt left on the sidelines, and we constantly argued for more inclusive action, such as strikes, rallies and demonstrations so that AR staff could be included in the action and in this way offer support to our academic colleagues who were carrying the burden of the assessment boycott.

Although we are academic related staff we do not think we should fight alone, we believe our strength lies in fighting alongside all our colleagues in HE, FE, whether academic, academic related or support staff. We also think it's esential to include our students in this fight for a fully funded and adequately staffed post-16 education system.

Read the briefing document in full - available here (pdf)


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