[Misc] Any Sussex Uni staff on here .....

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

what has government got to do with it, the universities are independent arent they? though the point is probably true, there are too many. interesting they dont understand the concept that research and teaching is dependant on funding, and if there is lower quality output from strikes that is not going to increase any time soon.

Not at all.

We get money (i) directly from the government (tax payer) based on our research, assessed by a process called REF (research excellence framework). It measures our grant income (we get our research funded by charities like the BHF, and by the taxpayer again, via the MRC) and our research outputs (mainly the pervceived importance of journals where we publish our research), and (ii) directly from the government based on our teaching (measured using its own imputs such as NSS data - see my post above) via TEF (teaching excellence framework). We don't generate much if any money of our own, although I think we get to keep the proceeds if we flog off buildings, as we have done, but his is all 'overseen' by government. We can't flog a building then piss the money up on coke and hookers. Essentially if we can't get enough dosh from REF and TEF we have to cut staff.

We binned lots of staff a few years ago for 'not meeting expectations'. Here we run into trouble. Our college is run by administrators who are actually psychopathic-spectrum former academics who have drifted into senior management. They make up assessment rules as they go along. Just as my departments (I have two, one for teaching and one for research) change their names every two years, the rules governing my continued employment change ever few years, and when they do we don't hear about it till later.

When we had a cull of staff a few years ago we had just ben busting a gut to publish our research so it would count for REF and many of us had neglected to apply for new grants (still surviving well enough on money raised 2 or more years prior. Guess what? The college decided to sack staff with insufficient teaching hours plus no new grant icome in the previous 12 months. That's it - no other factors considered. My teaching hours are massive, yet I and many were shitting it and quite depressed about it all (fancy that). A colleague of mine with modest hours, but a big research group, several million squid of current funding, but no new grant icome, spent 3 months with lawyers fighting to keep her job. I don't even like her very much but I was really sorry to see the state she got into.

That's the way we roll in the higher education sector - poachers turned psychotic gamekeepers calling the tune, shitting on their own, using arbitratrary rules, and meanwhile kissassing the government.

The next academic colleague who should know better who uses the term 'winning a grant' is going to get a very hard punch in the face off me. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Not at all.

We get money (i) directly from the government (tax payer) based on our research, assessed by a process called REF (research excellence framework). It measures our grant income (we get our research funded by charities like the BHF, and by the taxpayer again, via the MRC) and our research outputs (mainly the pervceived importance of journals where we publish our research), and (ii) directly from the government based on our teaching (measured using its own imputs such as NSS data - see my post above) via TEF (teaching excellence framework). We don't generate much if any money of our own, although I think we get to keep the proceeds if we flog off buildings, as we have done, but his is all 'overseen' by government. We can't flog a building then piss the money up on coke and hookers. Essentially if we can't get enough dosh from REF and TEF we have to cut staff.

We binned lots of staff a few years ago for 'not meeting expectations'. Here we run into trouble. Our college is run by administrators who are actually psychopathic-spectrum former academics who have drifted into senior management. They make up assessment rules as they go along. Just as my departments (I have two, one for teaching and one for research) change their names every two years, the rules governing my continued employment change ever few years, and when they do we don't hear about it till later.

When we had a cull of staff a few years ago we had just ben busting a gut to publish our research so it would count for REF and many of us had neglected to apply for new grants (still surviving well enough on money raised 2 or more years prior. Guess what? The college decided to sack staff with insufficient teaching hours plus no new grant icome in the previous 12 months. That's it - no other factors considered. My teaching hours are massive, yet I and many were shitting it and quite depressed about it all (fancy that). A colleague of mine with modest hours, but a big research group, several million squid of current funding, but no new grant icome, spent 3 months with lawyers fighting to keep her job. I don't even like her very much but I was really sorry to see the state she got into.

That's the way we roll in the higher education sector - poachers turned psychotic gamekeepers calling the tune, shitting on their own, using arbitratrary rules, and meanwhile kissassing the government.

The next academic colleague who should know better who uses the term 'winning a grant' is going to get a very hard punch in the face off me. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Thanks, HWT, you've just reminded me why I'm glad I'm out of it.

 

[timbha]

From memory [MENTION=149]timbha[/MENTION] is one person that will help you

I’d like to help but think you may have confused me with someone else. I once applied for a job there but didn’t even get a response!

 

[AmexRuislip]

I’d like to help but think you may have confused me with someone else. I once applied for a job there but didn’t even get a response!

Apologies

 

[Triggaaar]

EDIT - I actually thought you were above that type of post.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Dear [MENTION=1365]Westdene Seagull[/MENTION],

I am a member of the union that is on strike. I won't bore you with the reasons for the strike (or indeed why I am a blackleg) now. Maybe later. To address your points specifically (how this affects students and what will happen, here goes).

The advice being given by the employers is unclear. It affects a range of different types of assessment. I have asked for advice and the answer from my head of department is typically 'we don't know, but I suggest you do X'.

My understanding is that if a piece of coursework or exam assessment is affected by the strike, then the student is awarded 100% for that piece of work. Yes, if this becomes widespread it may devalue your kid's degree if people start to say: "Oh, they all got a first that year due to the strike". But society being what it is, I doubt this will trnspire....more below on this.

My advice would be to mobilize as parents/students and reject this. I would demand that students be allowed to redo the year at no cost, and with financial compensation to cover living costs. If you buy a car and it turns out to have a chocolate engine it is not a ****ing car is it? That helps our cause because at the moment the employer doesn't give a shit if we are on strike or not. I haven't even been asked if I am or not.

At present it is unclear how much work will be 100% marked. It depends how long the strike will last.

Some staff are being ecouraged (told? uged? bullied?) into offering aternative assessments to be marked later. This means more work for staff, and more work for students. That is rather counterintuitive for striking, I would argue. I have asked my union and my line manager for advice on his. The line manager says I can do what I feel is best. My union tells me I must try to minimise impacting students. Thus, a lack of clarity.

So, OK I will explain why I am a blackleg. Among many other things I run complex practical classes that go on for weeks. If I strike on weeks 6 and 7 the whole excercise is buggered because it can't be written up. That means the students get 100% for the practical element without completing it. Sorry but I am not having students go out in the world with a good pass in 'experimental' X with no actual assessed experimental acumen. And I am not happy wasting weeks of my time (work done prior to strike) binned. And what about all the animals that were used for the training? No, sorry, I am not going to strike in these circumstance.

Aside from that I am having to make plans for the fact that I had to set the exam for my courses in January (college rules) and now some of the questions set are on topics where there was no lecture given. Of course union advice is "do not make previous years' lectures avalable on lecture capture" (online accessible video recordings of lectures) as this defeats the point of striking. It is now too late to rewrite the exam papers, so what do I do? I am going to advise students to select questions (it is a 'select one from 2 options in each of 3 sections' paper) that were not taught and I will award 100%. What else can I do? If the student selects a question that was tought then this question will be assessed as per normal. You'd need to be a mug to answer such a question when you can write 'Q3 - I wasn't tought this' and get 100%.

So even though I have decided to not strike (I never do, I am a teacher and, like in Rome I am a slave), the strike is making me extra work.

And before anyone starts going on about my generous pensions (which it is) and the fact I get 3 months holiday in the summer (I don't), my job is not just teaching. I am supposed to be a top ranking researcher. I have done this for 38 years, and the research means I spent 35 of those doing 60 plus hour weeks (sometimes 90 hour weeks) owing to the need to constantly write grants and papers. But I'm OK now, pension paid up, and will pack in the research soon. It is the younger staff however who are in trouble.....

So, a lecturerer in their 30s must set up and run a course (very complicated, insane paperwork) and must raise grant income (£150K a year minimum, again incredibly hard, very competitive) and must publish at least 4 papers in high JIF (journal impact factor) journals (JIF of 10 or more for those who get this) or they will be in trouble. That means failing probation, put on monthly report, sacked. Their pensions have been buggered about with and are estimated to be worth only 40% of mine. Meanwhile they have to pay a greater contribution than I did. And the direction of travel is down - the pension value will be reduced further. The job demands meanwhile will increase. My senior colleagues advise graduates to not even think about academia as a career. I understand why they are striking.

If I were a student or parent I would kick up a stink.

Who to blame? I think the HE sector we have now is unsustainable in the capitalist world. If we are not prepared to pay much higher taxes, I would close half the universities. Actually there is merit in this regardless of money. I have visited plenty of places, and some are absolutele shite holes. The standard of research (and I imagine, teaching) at some places (former polys, and some red brick unis built in the 60s) is so poor it is just a waste of time and money. Various governments supported uni expansion, in part to keep kids of the dole, but it has gone too far. That said, without apprenticeships and alternatives to unis, what will the kids do at 18? Maybe Boris will fix everything by spaffing a load of money on it like the rail thing, but it is more likely he will see this as a fun opportunity to beat up some trotskyite beardy lecturerers.

One of the odd things about this is that 'university excellence' is hard to measure. Just because I say the teaching and research at X uni is shit is meaningless if the places are graduating loads of students who get jobs. Ironically the research pressure is greatest at the top unis rather than lower down. Mine is one of those, so the research pressure is immense. Ironically, where I work, and at the other Russell group colleges (the 'top' ones) there is no such pressure on teaching, and the only real measurment of how well we do that that is NSS (national student survey). As long as we score well nobody is bothered about actual standards. Ironically one of our most important departments (you can guess which but I won't write it down) has (and always has had ) a poor NSS score due to the arrogance of staff, and yet it remains inundated with applicants, all with 3 A starred A levels.

Also, in research, money begets money. The people with big labs and loadsa grant money are nearly all on the psychopathy spectrum (no conscience, believe their own bullshit, work damned hard, yet not above a little scientific fraud). They are the members of staff who run everything, and set the rules, so nothing will change.

At the same time, I have had issues with my union. I have received emails too full of glee. Beware communications with exclamation marks! I complained to my new shop steward some years ago about dicks from the SWP bringing their schoolboy politics to the table at the drop of every hat. He semi-apologetically admitted 'actually I am a member of the SWP'

Best wishes to everyone adversely affected by this. Mobilize and protest. You should get what you pay for. At very least ask for a refund.

That said, in the end people will forget about the grade infaltion because, sadly nothing actually matters very much in society any more. There are few checks and balances. We just bimble on. Just support your kids and let them not be distressed by this. Sadly I can't do that and am deeply stressed by the guilt of not striking combined with the frustration of the futility of striking. I get a neck spasm when stressed and I can barely sleep at the mo, and am in a lot of pain. Only when the employers start to hurt will this resolve. All the while students come out with degrees and they can use them without any quibbles the employer will do nothing. This has been going on for more than 10 years and only now have the union members voted to strike and, where I work, I'd say only 10% of staff are actually striking. All very sad.

Enough already - I have a mountain of coursework to mark.

Wow - that's quite some eye opener. Thank you, and I genuinely mean that - it puts a perspective on the issue. As someone that works in binary ( i.e. IT ) it does make me question if the whole Uni setup is fvcked though. It's meant to be an educational process .... it appears anything but. Maybe time to 'nationalise' Uni's and bring them into the 'normal' educational sector ?

 

[CheeseRolls]

Crikey if it is like this in Media Studies, what must it be like in a proper subject.

Dear [MENTION=1365]Westdene Seagull[/MENTION],

I am a member of the union that is on strike. I won't bore you with the reasons for the strike (or indeed why I am a blackleg) now. Maybe later. To address your points specifically (how this affects students and what will happen, here goes).

The advice being given by the employers is unclear. It affects a range of different types of assessment. I have asked for advice and the answer from my head of department is typically 'we don't know, but I suggest you do X'.

My understanding is that if a piece of coursework or exam assessment is affected by the strike, then the student is awarded 100% for that piece of work. Yes, if this becomes widespread it may devalue your kid's degree if people start to say: "Oh, they all got a first that year due to the strike". But society being what it is, I doubt this will trnspire....more below on this.

My advice would be to mobilize as parents/students and reject this. I would demand that students be allowed to redo the year at no cost, and with financial compensation to cover living costs. If you buy a car and it turns out to have a chocolate engine it is not a ****ing car is it? That helps our cause because at the moment the employer doesn't give a shit if we are on strike or not. I haven't even been asked if I am or not.

At present it is unclear how much work will be 100% marked. It depends how long the strike will last.

Some staff are being ecouraged (told? uged? bullied?) into offering aternative assessments to be marked later. This means more work for staff, and more work for students. That is rather counterintuitive for striking, I would argue. I have asked my union and my line manager for advice on his. The line manager says I can do what I feel is best. My union tells me I must try to minimise impacting students. Thus, a lack of clarity.

So, OK I will explain why I am a blackleg. Among many other things I run complex practical classes that go on for weeks. If I strike on weeks 6 and 7 the whole excercise is buggered because it can't be written up. That means the students get 100% for the practical element without completing it. Sorry but I am not having students go out in the world with a good pass in 'experimental' X with no actual assessed experimental acumen. And I am not happy wasting weeks of my time (work done prior to strike) binned. And what about all the animals that were used for the training? No, sorry, I am not going to strike in these circumstance.

Aside from that I am having to make plans for the fact that I had to set the exam for my courses in January (college rules) and now some of the questions set are on topics where there was no lecture given. Of course union advice is "do not make previous years' lectures avalable on lecture capture" (online accessible video recordings of lectures) as this defeats the point of striking. It is now too late to rewrite the exam papers, so what do I do? I am going to advise students to select questions (it is a 'select one from 2 options in each of 3 sections' paper) that were not taught and I will award 100%. What else can I do? If the student selects a question that was tought then this question will be assessed as per normal. You'd need to be a mug to answer such a question when you can write 'Q3 - I wasn't tought this' and get 100%.

So even though I have decided to not strike (I never do, I am a teacher and, like in Rome I am a slave), the strike is making me extra work.

And before anyone starts going on about my generous pensions (which it is) and the fact I get 3 months holiday in the summer (I don't), my job is not just teaching. I am supposed to be a top ranking researcher. I have done this for 38 years, and the research means I spent 35 of those doing 60 plus hour weeks (sometimes 90 hour weeks) owing to the need to constantly write grants and papers. But I'm OK now, pension paid up, and will pack in the research soon. It is the younger staff however who are in trouble.....

So, a lecturerer in their 30s must set up and run a course (very complicated, insane paperwork) and must raise grant income (£150K a year minimum, again incredibly hard, very competitive) and must publish at least 4 papers in high JIF (journal impact factor) journals (JIF of 10 or more for those who get this) or they will be in trouble. That means failing probation, put on monthly report, sacked. Their pensions have been buggered about with and are estimated to be worth only 40% of mine. Meanwhile they have to pay a greater contribution than I did. And the direction of travel is down - the pension value will be reduced further. The job demands meanwhile will increase. My senior colleagues advise graduates to not even think about academia as a career. I understand why they are striking.

If I were a student or parent I would kick up a stink.

Who to blame? I think the HE sector we have now is unsustainable in the capitalist world. If we are not prepared to pay much higher taxes, I would close half the universities. Actually there is merit in this regardless of money. I have visited plenty of places, and some are absolutele shite holes. The standard of research (and I imagine, teaching) at some places (former polys, and some red brick unis built in the 60s) is so poor it is just a waste of time and money. Various governments supported uni expansion, in part to keep kids of the dole, but it has gone too far. That said, without apprenticeships and alternatives to unis, what will the kids do at 18? Maybe Boris will fix everything by spaffing a load of money on it like the rail thing, but it is more likely he will see this as a fun opportunity to beat up some trotskyite beardy lecturerers.

One of the odd things about this is that 'university excellence' is hard to measure. Just because I say the teaching and research at X uni is shit is meaningless if the places are graduating loads of students who get jobs. Ironically the research pressure is greatest at the top unis rather than lower down. Mine is one of those, so the research pressure is immense. Ironically, where I work, and at the other Russell group colleges (the 'top' ones) there is no such pressure on teaching, and the only real measurment of how well we do that that is NSS (national student survey). As long as we score well nobody is bothered about actual standards. Ironically one of our most important departments (you can guess which but I won't write it down) has (and always has had ) a poor NSS score due to the arrogance of staff, and yet it remains inundated with applicants, all with 3 A starred A levels.

Also, in research, money begets money. The people with big labs and loadsa grant money are nearly all on the psychopathy spectrum (no conscience, believe their own bullshit, work damned hard, yet not above a little scientific fraud). They are the members of staff who run everything, and set the rules, so nothing will change.

At the same time, I have had issues with my union. I have received emails too full of glee. Beware communications with exclamation marks! I complained to my new shop steward some years ago about dicks from the SWP bringing their schoolboy politics to the table at the drop of every hat. He semi-apologetically admitted 'actually I am a member of the SWP'

Best wishes to everyone adversely affected by this. Mobilize and protest. You should get what you pay for. At very least ask for a refund.

That said, in the end people will forget about the grade infaltion because, sadly nothing actually matters very much in society any more. There are few checks and balances. We just bimble on. Just support your kids and let them not be distressed by this. Sadly I can't do that and am deeply stressed by the guilt of not striking combined with the frustration of the futility of striking. I get a neck spasm when stressed and I can barely sleep at the mo, and am in a lot of pain. Only when the employers start to hurt will this resolve. All the while students come out with degrees and they can use them without any quibbles the employer will do nothing. This has been going on for more than 10 years and only now have the union members voted to strike and, where I work, I'd say only 10% of staff are actually striking. All very sad.

Enough already - I have a mountain of coursework to mark.

 

[Braggfan]

Hilarious ! ..... not.

She works hard at her studies despite not being academic - she had to take GCSE maths 4 times to get her place at Uni. She then works hard at a restaurant to earn money to help pay her way at Uni. She's actually quite stressed as she needs to get certain grades to be able to move from Foundation year to degree proper. I guess that all the man bag carrying lecturers don't care though. Just as long as they get £40k pensions when they retire.

EDIT - I actually thought you were above that type of post.

I think it's interesting that you get the hump about that, when the other month you had a cheeky pop at someone regarding their daughter being on love island and then refused to accept any criticism of your comments. You defended yourself then by saying I was being over sensitive to banter. Perhaps you could stop being over sensitive now the shoe is on the other foot?

 

[amexer]

Have always been 95% anti unions and strikes and whilst interesting to read more insight nothing on this thread changes my mind. I know many retired from public services who to us in real world are on huge pensions that were not sustainable.

 

[Shooting Star]

Dear [MENTION=1365]Westdene Seagull[/MENTION],

I am a member of the union that is on strike. I won't bore you with the reasons for the strike (or indeed why I am a blackleg) now. Maybe later. To address your points specifically (how this affects students and what will happen, here goes).

The advice being given by the employers is unclear. It affects a range of different types of assessment. I have asked for advice and the answer from my head of department is typically 'we don't know, but I suggest you do X'.

My understanding is that if a piece of coursework or exam assessment is affected by the strike, then the student is awarded 100% for that piece of work. Yes, if this becomes widespread it may devalue your kid's degree if people start to say: "Oh, they all got a first that year due to the strike". But society being what it is, I doubt this will trnspire....more below on this.

My advice would be to mobilize as parents/students and reject this. I would demand that students be allowed to redo the year at no cost, and with financial compensation to cover living costs. If you buy a car and it turns out to have a chocolate engine it is not a ****ing car is it? That helps our cause because at the moment the employer doesn't give a shit if we are on strike or not. I haven't even been asked if I am or not.

At present it is unclear how much work will be 100% marked. It depends how long the strike will last.

Some staff are being ecouraged (told? uged? bullied?) into offering aternative assessments to be marked later. This means more work for staff, and more work for students. That is rather counterintuitive for striking, I would argue. I have asked my union and my line manager for advice on his. The line manager says I can do what I feel is best. My union tells me I must try to minimise impacting students. Thus, a lack of clarity.

So, OK I will explain why I am a blackleg. Among many other things I run complex practical classes that go on for weeks. If I strike on weeks 6 and 7 the whole excercise is buggered because it can't be written up. That means the students get 100% for the practical element without completing it. Sorry but I am not having students go out in the world with a good pass in 'experimental' X with no actual assessed experimental acumen. And I am not happy wasting weeks of my time (work done prior to strike) binned. And what about all the animals that were used for the training? No, sorry, I am not going to strike in these circumstance.

Aside from that I am having to make plans for the fact that I had to set the exam for my courses in January (college rules) and now some of the questions set are on topics where there was no lecture given. Of course union advice is "do not make previous years' lectures avalable on lecture capture" (online accessible video recordings of lectures) as this defeats the point of striking. It is now too late to rewrite the exam papers, so what do I do? I am going to advise students to select questions (it is a 'select one from 2 options in each of 3 sections' paper) that were not taught and I will award 100%. What else can I do? If the student selects a question that was tought then this question will be assessed as per normal. You'd need to be a mug to answer such a question when you can write 'Q3 - I wasn't tought this' and get 100%.

So even though I have decided to not strike (I never do, I am a teacher and, like in Rome I am a slave), the strike is making me extra work.

And before anyone starts going on about my generous pensions (which it is) and the fact I get 3 months holiday in the summer (I don't), my job is not just teaching. I am supposed to be a top ranking researcher. I have done this for 38 years, and the research means I spent 35 of those doing 60 plus hour weeks (sometimes 90 hour weeks) owing to the need to constantly write grants and papers. But I'm OK now, pension paid up, and will pack in the research soon. It is the younger staff however who are in trouble.....

So, a lecturerer in their 30s must set up and run a course (very complicated, insane paperwork) and must raise grant income (£150K a year minimum, again incredibly hard, very competitive) and must publish at least 4 papers in high JIF (journal impact factor) journals (JIF of 10 or more for those who get this) or they will be in trouble. That means failing probation, put on monthly report, sacked. Their pensions have been buggered about with and are estimated to be worth only 40% of mine. Meanwhile they have to pay a greater contribution than I did. And the direction of travel is down - the pension value will be reduced further. The job demands meanwhile will increase. My senior colleagues advise graduates to not even think about academia as a career. I understand why they are striking.

If I were a student or parent I would kick up a stink.

Who to blame? I think the HE sector we have now is unsustainable in the capitalist world. If we are not prepared to pay much higher taxes, I would close half the universities. Actually there is merit in this regardless of money. I have visited plenty of places, and some are absolutele shite holes. The standard of research (and I imagine, teaching) at some places (former polys, and some red brick unis built in the 60s) is so poor it is just a waste of time and money. Various governments supported uni expansion, in part to keep kids of the dole, but it has gone too far. That said, without apprenticeships and alternatives to unis, what will the kids do at 18? Maybe Boris will fix everything by spaffing a load of money on it like the rail thing, but it is more likely he will see this as a fun opportunity to beat up some trotskyite beardy lecturerers.

One of the odd things about this is that 'university excellence' is hard to measure. Just because I say the teaching and research at X uni is shit is meaningless if the places are graduating loads of students who get jobs. Ironically the research pressure is greatest at the top unis rather than lower down. Mine is one of those, so the research pressure is immense. Ironically, where I work, and at the other Russell group colleges (the 'top' ones) there is no such pressure on teaching, and the only real measurment of how well we do that that is NSS (national student survey). As long as we score well nobody is bothered about actual standards. Ironically one of our most important departments (you can guess which but I won't write it down) has (and always has had ) a poor NSS score due to the arrogance of staff, and yet it remains inundated with applicants, all with 3 A starred A levels.

Also, in research, money begets money. The people with big labs and loadsa grant money are nearly all on the psychopathy spectrum (no conscience, believe their own bullshit, work damned hard, yet not above a little scientific fraud). They are the members of staff who run everything, and set the rules, so nothing will change.

At the same time, I have had issues with my union. I have received emails too full of glee. Beware communications with exclamation marks! I complained to my new shop steward some years ago about dicks from the SWP bringing their schoolboy politics to the table at the drop of every hat. He semi-apologetically admitted 'actually I am a member of the SWP'

Best wishes to everyone adversely affected by this. Mobilize and protest. You should get what you pay for. At very least ask for a refund.

That said, in the end people will forget about the grade infaltion because, sadly nothing actually matters very much in society any more. There are few checks and balances. We just bimble on. Just support your kids and let them not be distressed by this. Sadly I can't do that and am deeply stressed by the guilt of not striking combined with the frustration of the futility of striking. I get a neck spasm when stressed and I can barely sleep at the mo, and am in a lot of pain. Only when the employers start to hurt will this resolve. All the while students come out with degrees and they can use them without any quibbles the employer will do nothing. This has been going on for more than 10 years and only now have the union members voted to strike and, where I work, I'd say only 10% of staff are actually striking. All very sad.

Enough already - I have a mountain of coursework to mark.

Thank you for this HWT. As a doctoral student hoping for a career in academia, this has been incredibly insightful and thought provoking. I really hope the whole sector is reformed as it sounds completely unsustainable. I also agree to your point about teaching as I did my undergraduate and masters at Warwick and we all got the same impression that for many of the professors, teaching was not at all on their priority list and therefore often lectures were of very poor quality.

 

[A mex eyecan]

That’s a snide response to a serious question.
There are times when it would be best if you kept your views to yourself.

not sure and i may well be wrong but i read his post as being said as a joke?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I think it's interesting that you get the hump about that, when the other month you had a cheeky pop at someone regarding their daughter being on love island and then refused to accept any criticism of your comments. You defended yourself then by saying I was being over sensitive to banter. Perhaps you could stop being over sensitive now the shoe is on the other foot?

You've clearly mixed me up with someone else .... feel free to post what I said .... or apologise.

 

[Braggfan]

You've clearly mixed me up with someone else .... feel free to post what I said .... or apologise.

No mix up I’m afraid, so no need for me to apologise.
Here’s the thread https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?375318-David-Warner-Piece-of-shit

You’re quoted as saying about the Cricketer David Warner, “It might help if you actually detailed what your problem with David Warner was ( and who he is ) ! Was he on love island and did your daughter a dis-service ?”
When I pointed out that it wasn’t very nice saying that to someone who’s daughter had been the subject of online bullying because of Love Island, and that they’d written on NSC about the effects of online bullying. You replied that I was “far too sensitive”, and that you suspected the original poster “has a thick skin and saw it as no more than the cheeky post”.
As I say it’s all on the thread above.

But as you don’t appear to have the same thick skin you expect other people to have, and clearly aren't able to take what you so happily dish out. Maybe you should take your own advice and not be so over sensitive.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

No mix up I’m afraid, so no need for me to apologise.
Here’s the thread https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?375318-David-Warner-Piece-of-shit

You’re quoted as saying about the Cricketer David Warner, “It might help if you actually detailed what your problem with David Warner was ( and who he is ) ! Was he on love island and did your daughter a dis-service ?”
When I pointed out that it wasn’t very nice saying that to someone who’s daughter had been the subject of online bullying because of Love Island, and that they’d written on NSC about the effects of online bullying. You replied that I was “far too sensitive”, and that you suspected the original poster “has a thick skin and saw it as no more than the cheeky post”.
As I say it’s all on the thread above.

But as you don’t appear to have the same thick skin you expect other people to have, and clearly aren't able to take what you so happily dish out. Maybe you should take your own advice and not be so over sensitive.

Wow - my very own stalker ! Two entirely different circumstances - the daughter I commented on had put herself in the public eye - my daughter hasn't. There's so much more I could say but frankly you're linking oranges with rhinos so it's not really worth the effort.

 

[Braggfan]

Wow - my very own stalker ! Two entirely different circumstances - the daughter I commented on had put herself in the public eye - my daughter hasn't. There's so much more I could say but frankly you're linking oranges with rhinos so it's not really worth the effort.

I'm not going to try and explain it to you, if you don't see it you don't see it.

But for what's it's worth if you were upset about the comment, I genuinely think that's a shame as nobody should have to feel like that or feel like their children are being criticised. It's just a shame that you aren't able to extend that feeling to other people.

 

[LadySeagull]

My son has already claimed £100 back for the last strikes and will claim for the latest ones too, WS. He has helped others filling in their claims.

I wonder if your Ms WS knows my Mr LS?!

 

[The Clamp]

And as for you, boy do you take offense easily when it suits you.

This. A few on here that are more than happy to stomp around the board causing offense and calling people snowflakes when they get offended but god forbid anyone make a joke about something that is important to them. Thin skins.

 

[Diablo]

"The Typical USS member will be around £240,000 worse off in retirement
.

£240,000 worse off. Good grief. How much did they start with ? At least £240K more than those who rely on state pension !!

 

[essbee1]

Dear [MENTION=1365]Westdene Seagull[/MENTION],

I am a member of the union that is on strike. I won't bore you with the reasons for the strike (or indeed why I am a blackleg) now. Maybe later. To address your points specifically (how this affects students and what will happen, here goes).

The advice being given by the employers is unclear. It affects a range of different types of assessment. I have asked for advice and the answer from my head of department is typically 'we don't know, but I suggest you do X'.

My understanding is that if a piece of coursework or exam assessment is affected by the strike, then the student is awarded 100% for that piece of work. Yes, if this becomes widespread it may devalue your kid's degree if people start to say: "Oh, they all got a first that year due to the strike". But society being what it is, I doubt this will trnspire....more below on this.

My advice would be to mobilize as parents/students and reject this. I would demand that students be allowed to redo the year at no cost, and with financial compensation to cover living costs. If you buy a car and it turns out to have a chocolate engine it is not a ****ing car is it? That helps our cause because at the moment the employer doesn't give a shit if we are on strike or not. I haven't even been asked if I am or not.

At present it is unclear how much work will be 100% marked. It depends how long the strike will last.

Some staff are being ecouraged (told? uged? bullied?) into offering aternative assessments to be marked later. This means more work for staff, and more work for students. That is rather counterintuitive for striking, I would argue. I have asked my union and my line manager for advice on his. The line manager says I can do what I feel is best. My union tells me I must try to minimise impacting students. Thus, a lack of clarity.

So, OK I will explain why I am a blackleg. Among many other things I run complex practical classes that go on for weeks. If I strike on weeks 6 and 7 the whole excercise is buggered because it can't be written up. That means the students get 100% for the practical element without completing it. Sorry but I am not having students go out in the world with a good pass in 'experimental' X with no actual assessed experimental acumen. And I am not happy wasting weeks of my time (work done prior to strike) binned. And what about all the animals that were used for the training? No, sorry, I am not going to strike in these circumstance.

Aside from that I am having to make plans for the fact that I had to set the exam for my courses in January (college rules) and now some of the questions set are on topics where there was no lecture given. Of course union advice is "do not make previous years' lectures avalable on lecture capture" (online accessible video recordings of lectures) as this defeats the point of striking. It is now too late to rewrite the exam papers, so what do I do? I am going to advise students to select questions (it is a 'select one from 2 options in each of 3 sections' paper) that were not taught and I will award 100%. What else can I do? If the student selects a question that was tought then this question will be assessed as per normal. You'd need to be a mug to answer such a question when you can write 'Q3 - I wasn't tought this' and get 100%.

So even though I have decided to not strike (I never do, I am a teacher and, like in Rome I am a slave), the strike is making me extra work.

And before anyone starts going on about my generous pensions (which it is) and the fact I get 3 months holiday in the summer (I don't), my job is not just teaching. I am supposed to be a top ranking researcher. I have done this for 38 years, and the research means I spent 35 of those doing 60 plus hour weeks (sometimes 90 hour weeks) owing to the need to constantly write grants and papers. But I'm OK now, pension paid up, and will pack in the research soon. It is the younger staff however who are in trouble.....

So, a lecturerer in their 30s must set up and run a course (very complicated, insane paperwork) and must raise grant income (£150K a year minimum, again incredibly hard, very competitive) and must publish at least 4 papers in high JIF (journal impact factor) journals (JIF of 10 or more for those who get this) or they will be in trouble. That means failing probation, put on monthly report, sacked. Their pensions have been buggered about with and are estimated to be worth only 40% of mine. Meanwhile they have to pay a greater contribution than I did. And the direction of travel is down - the pension value will be reduced further. The job demands meanwhile will increase. My senior colleagues advise graduates to not even think about academia as a career. I understand why they are striking.

If I were a student or parent I would kick up a stink.

Who to blame? I think the HE sector we have now is unsustainable in the capitalist world. If we are not prepared to pay much higher taxes, I would close half the universities. Actually there is merit in this regardless of money. I have visited plenty of places, and some are absolutele shite holes. The standard of research (and I imagine, teaching) at some places (former polys, and some red brick unis built in the 60s) is so poor it is just a waste of time and money. Various governments supported uni expansion, in part to keep kids of the dole, but it has gone too far. That said, without apprenticeships and alternatives to unis, what will the kids do at 18? Maybe Boris will fix everything by spaffing a load of money on it like the rail thing, but it is more likely he will see this as a fun opportunity to beat up some trotskyite beardy lecturerers.

One of the odd things about this is that 'university excellence' is hard to measure. Just because I say the teaching and research at X uni is shit is meaningless if the places are graduating loads of students who get jobs. Ironically the research pressure is greatest at the top unis rather than lower down. Mine is one of those, so the research pressure is immense. Ironically, where I work, and at the other Russell group colleges (the 'top' ones) there is no such pressure on teaching, and the only real measurment of how well we do that that is NSS (national student survey). As long as we score well nobody is bothered about actual standards. Ironically one of our most important departments (you can guess which but I won't write it down) has (and always has had ) a poor NSS score due to the arrogance of staff, and yet it remains inundated with applicants, all with 3 A starred A levels.

Also, in research, money begets money. The people with big labs and loadsa grant money are nearly all on the psychopathy spectrum (no conscience, believe their own bullshit, work damned hard, yet not above a little scientific fraud). They are the members of staff who run everything, and set the rules, so nothing will change.

At the same time, I have had issues with my union. I have received emails too full of glee. Beware communications with exclamation marks! I complained to my new shop steward some years ago about dicks from the SWP bringing their schoolboy politics to the table at the drop of every hat. He semi-apologetically admitted 'actually I am a member of the SWP'

Best wishes to everyone adversely affected by this. Mobilize and protest. You should get what you pay for. At very least ask for a refund.

That said, in the end people will forget about the grade infaltion because, sadly nothing actually matters very much in society any more. There are few checks and balances. We just bimble on. Just support your kids and let them not be distressed by this. Sadly I can't do that and am deeply stressed by the guilt of not striking combined with the frustration of the futility of striking. I get a neck spasm when stressed and I can barely sleep at the mo, and am in a lot of pain. Only when the employers start to hurt will this resolve. All the while students come out with degrees and they can use them without any quibbles the employer will do nothing. This has been going on for more than 10 years and only now have the union members voted to strike and, where I work, I'd say only 10% of staff are actually striking. All very sad.

Enough already - I have a mountain of coursework to mark.

Unions (apart from transport and baggage handling) are powerless. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

That’s a snide response to a serious question.
There are times when it would be best if you kept your views to yourself.

It was a tongue-in-cheek observation of general student life as opposed to personal criticism of [MENTION=1365]Westdene Seagull[/MENTION]’s daughter. Obviously it wasn’t the time or place. I apologised, he acknowledged.