Dear Student,
As you may know, members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) are now taking industrial action over pay. Over the past ten years, our pay has fallen behind comparable professions by over 30%, despite substantial increases in our productivity. This is not just inequitable, but has serious consequences for the education of future generations of students. All lecturers start as undergraduates, continue as postgraduates and usually spend several years as research assistants. As a result, in qualifying to become teachers and researchers they accumulate a substantial debt, and lose the income that they would have earned whilst qualifying. We estimate that the cost of qualifying can be as much as 100 thousand pounds. The problem is that our salaries do not compensate for this cost. This has serious consequences for the recruitment of University staff – there are many other interesting and fulfilling jobs with more adequate pay. The upshot is, that if you want universities staffed by high calibre staff, you need to support our action.
This problem was acknowledged by UCEA, the organisation of our employers, who argued for the extra funds in part to increase staff salaries. Unfortunately, when the extra funds were actually provided, UCEA changed its tune and have been dragging their feet since. The excuses vary from day to day. Furthermore, students commencing university from next year will be required to pay top-up fees. AUT strongly opposed top-up fees, and we continue to do so. But the Government introduced these fees partly in order to provide a source of funding to enable universities to pay their staff adequately: now, universities are reneging on this commitment.
Our action has two components. The first is a one day Strike on March 7th, the second is ‘action short of strike’, notably a boycott of assessment. The former means that you should expect any postgraduate or undergraduate teaching provided by our members next Tuesday to be cancelled. The action on assessment means that our members will not engage in any activities such as setting and marking exams, marking coursework or carrying out oral exams. This action has the potential seriously to affect your study and its outcome, especially if you are in your final year. We are very concerned that this should not happen: but we are also determined to win our grievance. The resolution is in the hands of our employers. We urge you and your parents to contact our President and Vice-Chancellor, and Members of Parliament, urging them to put pressure on UCEA to enter meaningful negotiations and to move to settle the dispute speedily.
Ivan Leudar
UMAUT President