I have worked as a university administrator for six years and
was a university student for four years prior to that. I have witnessed huge changes in the higher
education sector during the last ten years, the most significant of these being
the introduction of much higher university tuition fees. Students now pay thousands of pounds per year
in fees, while the state has cut the funding it provides to universities. This funding plugged the difference between
what students pay and the actual cost of teaching and I fully expect that universities
will claw back the difference by raising tuition fees even higher in future. At
least one
university vice-chancellor is already calling for this. I believe that universities should receive
more funding from government and that this shouldn’t come from raising
students’ tuition fees. The coalition
government and the Labour one that preceded it, who were responsible for
introducing university tuition fees in the first place, have screwed over
students and universities. Students have
to pay higher fees, but the extra money doesn’t benefit universities because at
the same time the government has cut their funding. This is part of an agenda to privatise higher
education, to create a competitive market in a sector where collegiality is
highly valued. Students and university
workers are the ones who will suffer as a result of this.
I fundamentally disagree with this approach. All of society benefits from having a well
educated workforce - well-trained professionals help to train up others,
initiate new research and invent new products, all of which generate money for
the economy and improve the lives of everyone in society. The benefits that
higher education brings to society as a whole merit more government funding,
not less. I think it is perfectly fair
to fund higher education through taxation.
Yes, some graduates do earn significantly more than their peers who
don’t go to university, but for the majority of graduates, who are in a market
where jobs are scarce and who are finding it difficult to find any job let
alone a ‘graduate job’, this is not the case.
Everyone in society benefits from having a well-educated workforce.
There is also the question of fair access to a university education. Education is a right, not a privilege, yet I am concerned that increasing tuition fees yet further will continue to dissuade students from lower socio-economic backgrounds from going to university. Higher tuition fees force students to take out loans which many will have to spend their entire working lives paying back, when as I’ve said above, many won’t earn the astronomical salaries that the government seems to think all graduates get. I grew up on a council estate where money was always tight, yet I always believed that if I worked hard at school I’d be able to go to university and make a better life for myself. I genuinely don’t believe that if I had had to pay £9,000 a year in tuition fees that I would have been able to afford to go to university.
What has this got to do with me and striking today? Ostensibly the strike by my union (Unison) and UCU and Unite is about pay. Academic and professional higher education staff have had below inflation pay rises for five years, resulting in a net pay cut of 13% once inflation is taken into account. I can't afford for this to continue. Like most of my colleagues, I didn’t go into higher education for the monetary benefits but for the love of the role I provide. I don’t want to disrupt students’ education. However, like everyone I need to eat and keep a roof over my head and if below inflation pay rises continue I won't be able to afford to live on my salary.
I love my job and I love seeing students achieve their potential. This is the first time in my career that I will have gone on strike and given what I've just said about my salary I cannot afford to lose the day's pay that will be deducted from my wages. For me though this is about more than pay. It's about watching university education turn into a market, about students being treated as a commodity rather than as learners and researchers, about courses and departments closing because they are no longer deemed to be profitable, about research for the sake of enquiry being abandoned.
There is also the question of fair access to a university education. Education is a right, not a privilege, yet I am concerned that increasing tuition fees yet further will continue to dissuade students from lower socio-economic backgrounds from going to university. Higher tuition fees force students to take out loans which many will have to spend their entire working lives paying back, when as I’ve said above, many won’t earn the astronomical salaries that the government seems to think all graduates get. I grew up on a council estate where money was always tight, yet I always believed that if I worked hard at school I’d be able to go to university and make a better life for myself. I genuinely don’t believe that if I had had to pay £9,000 a year in tuition fees that I would have been able to afford to go to university.
What has this got to do with me and striking today? Ostensibly the strike by my union (Unison) and UCU and Unite is about pay. Academic and professional higher education staff have had below inflation pay rises for five years, resulting in a net pay cut of 13% once inflation is taken into account. I can't afford for this to continue. Like most of my colleagues, I didn’t go into higher education for the monetary benefits but for the love of the role I provide. I don’t want to disrupt students’ education. However, like everyone I need to eat and keep a roof over my head and if below inflation pay rises continue I won't be able to afford to live on my salary.
I love my job and I love seeing students achieve their potential. This is the first time in my career that I will have gone on strike and given what I've just said about my salary I cannot afford to lose the day's pay that will be deducted from my wages. For me though this is about more than pay. It's about watching university education turn into a market, about students being treated as a commodity rather than as learners and researchers, about courses and departments closing because they are no longer deemed to be profitable, about research for the sake of enquiry being abandoned.
