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Large group of people crowd gathering together to protest
Issues for lecturers include casual contracts, pay gaps, stress and workload concerns. Photograph: Alamy
Issues for lecturers include casual contracts, pay gaps, stress and workload concerns. Photograph: Alamy

Students! Your lecturers are on strike because they are struggling to survive

This article is more than 7 years old

I know you want feedback on your essay, but I’m underpaid, sleep-deprived and wondering how I’ll pay my rent

The current University and College Union (UCU) strike means that thousands people in various roles in higher and further education will join the picket line or simply won’t turn up for work today. This is likely to affect you, the ordinary students, as your tutors will be unavailable, your queries will remain unanswered and your essays unmarked.

What is wrong with these people, you may ask. Why should you have to suffer the consequences of this strike? After all, lecturers have nice, well-paying jobs. They can spend their summers doing nothing. And they don’t have to deal with screaming school kids either. What more do they want?

Well, the union highlights a variety of issues, from the pay gap between employees to the alarming rise in casual teaching contracts. These issues are well-documented and backed up by statistics, but you may not be moved by figures about employment contracts, gender inequality, workload problems, management pressure, stress levels and diversity issues. So let me give you a first-hand account of life as a lecturer today.

Let’s start with a familiar situation. You have submitted your work, and, understandably, you want the marker to devote their utmost attention to it. Believe me, we are on the same page here: this is exactly what I want to do. Yet, I can’t concentrate on your essay properly. I keep thinking about my fixed-term contract which ends in the next few weeks. I am thinking about what else I could sell on eBay to be able to pay the rent.Universities save money by not employing lecturers during the summer months. According to data from the UCU, 46% of universities use these casual contracts.Let’s imagine that I get lucky, and am offered a couple of summer jobs teaching elsewhere or marking school essays. Let’s say the jobs overlap. Now I have a lot of work and little time for sleep. I have to pack my things, move to a different city, only to be uprooted and move again in September when a university wants want to employ me as a lecturer again. This means moving house twice within three months, with no holiday, two jobs, no time to prepare lectures for September and no research.

And what does this mean for you, the students? In September you will listen to lectures that are hastily put together and delivered by people who are on the brink of exhaustion. So much for the quality of teaching.

Now let’s talk about research. Your university prospectus tells you that you’ve joined an institution that pays particular attention to research. It encourages staff to integrate research into their teaching. It is delighted to announce a strong performance in the latest Research Assessment Framework (Ref).

It sounds inspirational, but my – your lecturer’s – reality looks like this: this summer, instead of completing my contracted academic monographs and articles, and working towards an even stronger Ref contribution, I will be teaching English at another university. There won’t be a second left for writing after all the preparation and 21 hours of class contact per week.

Still not convinced? Let’s have a look at another familiar situation. Have you ever wondered why your seminar tutor is unavailable when you have a query or why she or he does not have an office or contact hours? Chances are that your tutor is on a zero-hours contract. This means that this person is only paid for the hours he or she spends in the classroom, teaching. The time spent preparing the course, attending meetings and, at some institutions, marking assignments, is not covered by this type of contract. It does not include sick pay or a guaranteed number of hours.

Lecturers often spend most of the day on public transport, commuting between different institutions, trying to get enough scraps of employment to survive financially. I’ve had five of these jobs. They feel like hell on earth. You don’t know what you are teaching until a few days before the start of the course, and you are paid months afterwards. You have no rights in the department.

Having spent between four and 10 hours preparing lectures and seminars, and then replying to students’ emails, you are paid £35 (five months later). You have to keep reminding your employer that you are owed money. Your travel expenses can be sky high, and they are not reimbursed. Receiving £35 for four hours of preparation plus two hours of teaching minus transport costs (say, £10, optimistically) equals £4 per hour.

Finally, about gender equality. As a female lecturer from an ethnic minority, I am at the very bottom of the pecking order. I have not one, but two, glass ceilings to break. I am supposed to inspire and empower my female students, but here I am, a woman with a substantial publication record, all kinds of teaching qualifications and 13 years of experience, still begging for another fixed-term contract. My survival is decided by a system that cares neither about me, the lecturer, nor about you, my students.

You are paying a lot of money for your education, in some cases as much as £9,000 a year. Universities market themselves as prestigious places where you, the student-customer, can obtain a high-quality product: a degree delivered by knowledgeable and experienced experts in the field.

In reality, your lecturers are often precariously employed, underpaid, and sometimes even on the brink of homelessness. This strike is as much about your lecturers as about you, the students. I am sure that you don’t want your prestigious education to be delivered by people with no rights and no future.

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