Should students be (financially) compensated for strike action by lecturers?
Regular readers of this blog will know that last year I was still employed part of the time at Cardiff University and during that period I was participating in strike action called by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) over pensions. As a result of that action students on my module on Physics of the Early Universe missed quite a lot of lectures (and I was docked a large fraction of my pay).
I refused to do extra lectures after the strike was over to make up for those lost, as it seemed to me that defeated the point of the strike action, but I did make notes available for the students (which I do anyway). Students were also given access to recordings of the previous year’s lectures on the same module. I know some lecturers also adjusted their examinations and/or other assessments to exclude material that had not been covered.
It seems practice for dealing with this (admittedly difficult) situation has varied from institution to institution, and some students who feel that they missed out as a result of the strike have apparently asked to be compensated by their University. Institutions could of course pay compensation to students out of the money saved by not paying lecturers, but that wouldn’t go very far because only a small part of the £9000+ students pay in fees goes to the salaries of teaching staff. Another issue is that I recall one or two students didn’t come to lectures even before the strike started. Should they be compensated too?
Anyway I thought this might be an interesting topic for a poll, so here goes:
As always views are welcome through the comments box too!
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In the Dark 
May 22, 2019 at 2:41 pm
Of course they should be compensated. When train companies are
late they need to pay the money for the ticket back at least
in principle. If I get a damaged good from a shop they
return my money. Why everyone wants the education to be free
and not follow the
free market economy. The teachers are employed by the Univeristy
who charge money from the students. If teachers go on strike
their salaries get deducted. So why not return this money to the
customers (students) instead of using it to reward the deans and HoDs with higher salaries?
Of course a related question is should universities use PDRAs
to correct exam scripts or even act as a substitute lecturer?
The answer is no unless they get paid extra. Their salary
comes from funding agencies and universities should not
steal that money to use them as handyman.
And finally, should students be allowed to disrupt the classes/exams.
The answer is simply no unless it is related to some local issue
e.g. issues related to the University in question or Student life there.
Global or national politics should be banned from University
premises. This is important as thousands of school students
who are as young as 12 are now being dragged from school
every Friday into the streets to protest about pollution
even before they reach the voting age.
May 22, 2019 at 3:08 pm
UK research councils such as SFTC only pay 80% of the cost of employing a PDRA. The remainder comes from the University, as does the cost of office accommodation etc. PDRAs are employees of the University, not the research council.
A bit of teaching experience is good for a PDRA’s future employment prospects as most available jobs involve lecturing. Of course it’s a different matter if the PDRA is offered some teaching and does it so badly that word gets around.
May 22, 2019 at 3:26 pm
The other 20% should go to provide basic amenities
that many universities lack e.g. clean toilets, less crowded
office space with a controlled level of noise.
Number of students in many Universities have increased
exponentially in recent years which means one can end up with
marking more than 100 copies. This is very different
from what it used to be few years back.
A very low percentage of PDRA’s actually eventually make
it to lecturing positions – so not sure how teaching can help
someone who is already into developing codes for
a space project.
May 22, 2019 at 3:27 pm
You want a 20% pay cut then?
May 22, 2019 at 3:12 pm
Teachers (in)directly encourage students so they can get a Friday off.
May 22, 2019 at 3:30 pm
I am sure there are teachers who don’t support the protest.
They are not majority.
May 22, 2019 at 3:41 pm
I don’t know any PDRA who do not work over the week ends.
I know many who has never taken any annual leave in last 5 years.
So in effect a lot of us actually donate a lot more than
20% of our salary.
May 22, 2019 at 4:09 pm
When lecturers/IT/Nurses guys go on a strike complaining
about long working hours would you ask the same question?
May 23, 2019 at 11:02 am
Many lecturer actually do complain about extra work load
as number of students have increased drastically. Many
school teachers have exactly the same issue when they
go for strike as number of school students have increased
drastically but councils lack funds to build new schools.
Many post docs end up supervising more than two MSc
students which results in theses work. They often teach
to cover paternity leave or when teaching staff are at a
meeting or conference. They also are required to check
exam scripts even more than 100s in term time. Some
organise departmental seminars/meetings. Research
is not like any other job. In principle it is 37.5 hours and
you are simply required to do 20% of other stuff but this
doesn’t make sense when what constitutes 100% is not
clear. And of course these are mainly temporary jobs
and so PDRAs are at the mercy of their departmental bosses.
Some have family and suffers from extreme anxiety.
But no one questions the system. I know some
who would even be ready to spend time to help in
a curry house or cash & carry if the dept. tells them it
will help their career in the long run.
Some of these PDRAs work in an extremely crowded
conditions. Many departments lack basic facilities.
Available facilities are allocated to students
who have paid huge money. The faculties don’t have
to worry because it’s them who make the decisions.
In winter some offices can be freezing and summer
the offices can have huge noise of grass mower when
the students are not organising a leaving do or freshers
welcome. Many of them work all week ends and
there are some who actually haven’t taken a single
annual leave in last five or more years. The dark side
of how research in academia never gets told and no one
is interested to hear.
May 22, 2019 at 4:30 pm
Students pay extortionate fees, so is there not some written agreement which specifies what they get in return for those fees? If the university cannot fulfil what the extortionate fees obliged it to, then it absolutely should compensate the students.
However, I voted “no” in the poll, for the wider principle that I think it’s obscene that students have to pay any fees at all. They should pay no fees, and thus suffer no financial loss that needs compensating.
May 22, 2019 at 6:41 pm
Everyone should have the right to withdraw their labour. It’s a basic right.
May 23, 2019 at 12:41 pm
That might be a reasonable argument in the days when tenure means job security, but as personnel/HR departments are quick to point out, these days a lecturer can be made redundant as easily as anybody else. With statutory compensation of course, but the job is no more secure than that of a factory worker.
May 22, 2019 at 9:29 pm
Yes, in principle students should be reimbursed for services not rendered. Imagine at the bargaining table how the tide will change (in favor of striking faculty and staff!) once admin has to factor in the revenue losses.