The UK wide organisation for students, the National Union of Students, has called a "congregation" in London to protest about the state of UK Higher Education on 2nd March. Once again, RHUL UCU has seen great support during our disputes from our students; they called for and won a referendum on support for our two disputes at the local SU, they stand opposite us on the picket lines and they participate fully in our Teach Outs. UCU timed our current round of action to finish on the date of this event, so we could repay this invaluable student solidarity. RHUL UCU will stand proudly alongside our students as the participate in the NUS protest for education. We call on as many members as possible to join us, around the RHUL UCU branch banner, on 2nd March.
Why are NUS planning this protest?
The NUS are calling for a New Vision for Education, demonstrating what they want by building their own education for the day – "it's a protest, it's a party, and it's something we will come together for" (NUS website). It will be ten years in September since UG fees were driven up dramatically to £9,000 per year, for home and EU students. Such a move was based on the premise that Higher Education is entirely a private good with no wider social benefits and therefore there was no social responsibility to contribute to this system. This is clearly economic (and ethical) nonsense. The NUS is campaigning for funded, accessible, lifelong, democratised education. NUS seeks to change the narrative on education through direct action, lobbying and community organising across the UK. [This is even more important since the Government published its response to the Augur review yesterday - Ed.]
What have they planned so far?
NUS have called for a day of sharing knowledge, celebrating together, and experiencing education as we want to see it in central London on 2nd March, from 12-4pm. Detailed plans are under wraps for now, but Teach Out activities, performance, speeches and a march are likely elements.
Students are getting a raw deal
UK Higher Education could easily be characterised by the following today: government and pundits' attacks on 'woke' weakness and 'snowflake' students; extortionate costs for undergraduates; exhausted tutors; senior managements' obsession with buildings; and (recently) senior management demands for more low quality on-line content, whatever a course's validated learning objectives!
The Government should spend less time perpetrating divisive myths driving a culture war where universities are the enemy (see for example, Daily Mail 18th February 2022 on content warnings; 13th January 2022 and 30th October 2021 among many examples drumming up transphobia). It is vital that universities maintain and strengthen a collaborative and welcoming environment for all students and staff, where we exhibit care and empathy for each other. If content warnings are required to protect our students from additional trauma, then an appropriate local response is a coherent policy on warnings developed by teaching staff and student reps, and enhanced student welfare support. An appropriate national response is greater funding for youth mental health services and respect for the autonomy of pedagogic experts.
Currently undergraduates who enrolled before September 2012 repay loans when their salaries are over £21k a year; those who enrolled later repay when their salary gets to £27k a year. However, the scale of student debt is causing the government to look at lowering the salary threshold for repayments. An analysis for the House of Commons library states that a cut in repayment thresholds for graduates from £27,000 to £21000 a year will see lower earners and women particularly badly affected. Clearly wages and house prices vary massively by region, but the average salary in 2021 was around £26k and the average British house price was £275,000 – clearly a mismatch there! To this cost of living crisis, add rising inflation and working "taxes". Those who enrolled before 2012 only face interest rates of 1.25%, whereas later cohorts are facing interest rates of RPI (Retail Price Index inflation) up to 3%. Trading Economics reports that UK inflation using the RPI measure was 7.8% in January 2022 - ouch. The lower the repayment threshold and the higher the interest rates on loans, the more graduates are priced out of home ownership, deterred from taking socially valuable lower paid jobs (such as those in the public sector), and have to defer or cancel plans for families. The rising cost of HE may, in particular, deter potential applicants from lower income backgrounds; those without a family history of HE may struggle to follow the complexities of the loan system and just opt out.
The blog post we shared on Friday highlighted how USS (and potentially other university workers' pension schemes) are being threatened due to the importance senior management teams attach to flashy new estate, rather than investment in the workers who support student well-being and deliver teaching and research. Setting targets to save money by delaying replacements for exiting staff and allowing staff and students to inhabit unheated buildings over several months in winter (imagine how that will feature in NSS results) illustrate the disconnect between senior managers and life at our College. The continued lack of response to our documented workload crisis shows an utter disdain for staff well-being and assumes that students will not notice the effects of staff exhaustion. The current centralised system of instructing staff what will be pre-recorded, delivered in person on campus or delivered on-line to a sea of blank screens, of retaining COVID-19 emergency forms of assessment, all make a mockery of the time tutors spend validating and perfecting modules. The attempt to replace direct human contact and opportunities for rapport-building between tutors and students, and students and their peers, reduces HE further to a transactional relationship. Removing the human elements makes our offer less unique, less rich and rewarding and may affect satisfaction and wellbeing further, for all involved.
Our fight rolls on, for now
UCU members at many institutions are taking up to ten days of industrial action; our next strike days, over the Four Fights, will be 28th February, 1st March and 2nd March. Be under no illusions - if our employers do not accept the validity and justice of our claims on working conditions, and given the outrageous decision to steal our pensions at the latest meeting of the USS Joint Negotiating Committee, further extended action will follow soon. Just as our steadfast stance in 2018 prevented employers from ending defined pension provision, employers will be shown that we will not accept continued insecurity at work and in retirement; we cannot bear these workloads any longer. The sooner they concede this and re-open meaningful negotiations, the sooner we can get back to work!
Posted on behalf of the RHUL UCU Branch Committee
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