{"id":841,"date":"2023-10-30T13:59:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T13:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/?p=841"},"modified":"2023-10-30T13:59:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T13:59:53","slug":"student-survey-deadline-7th-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/2023\/10\/30\/student-survey-deadline-7th-november\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Survey &#8211; deadline: 7th November"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Kent Union have made clear that they will <em>not support<\/em>\u00a0senior management\u2019s disastrous academic year changes<em>\u00a0<\/em>if students choose a different approach (see email for link to motion).<\/li>\n<li>It is now up to <em>you<\/em>\u00a0to prove the widespread student opposition to senior management\u2019s plans. <a href=\"https:\/\/eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1BbztK_37E05nQh4eNm2zUOEhrmeXq71uyTA5ro1mIP0%2Fedit%3Fusp%3Dsharing&amp;data=05%7C01%7CC.Hall-515%40kent.ac.uk%7C1f6e53e05d2647236ae108dbd6e939cd%7C51a9fa563f32449aa7213e3f49aa5e9a%7C0%7C0%7C638340069432823815%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=iNk%2BNmdFH5uGKea%2FXRD6J%2B4S3d23h2%2F489SeHaow8XA%3D&amp;reserved=0\">Send this email &amp; survey to all your students now<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Show the attached\u00a0powerpoint in your seminars &amp; lectures, asking students to fill out the survey. This will not take longer than 5 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Kent Union have a crucial role on Senate, who will be voting on senior management\u2019s proposal on 8th November.<\/li>\n<li>UCU are offering students a real choice between the two versions of the academic year which could realistically be accepted:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/files\/2023\/10\/t.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-842\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/files\/2023\/10\/t.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1242\" height=\"669\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>As suggested by the all-member branch motion<\/strong><strong>, your UCU negotiators are counterproposing a &#8216;two teaching term,&#8217; \u2018semesterised\u2019 model<\/strong>\u00a0of the academic year, as an alternative to senior management\u2019s disastrous plans.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cTwo teaching terms\u201d is a compromise<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>counterproposal that could realistically be accepted<\/strong>. It was under serious consideration by the senior management Project Team in August, and would retain the 15\/30 credit structure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Here are some of the main reasons why \u201ctwo teaching terms\u201d is a better option:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u201cTwo teaching terms\u201d is tried and tested by many institutions. <\/strong>Senior<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>management\u2019s<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>high-risk model is only used by a handful of outliers in the sector.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cTwo teaching terms\u201d does not risk students leaving &amp; the university going bust. <\/strong>In contrast,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>a third teaching term means students cannot work full time or undertake caring responsibilities over the summer term: many will leave and the university will lose their tuition fees. Senior management have refused to share the \u201cbusiness case\u201d for their third teaching term, suggesting there is no convincing financial case.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cTwo teaching terms\u201d avoids industrial action, potentially at the end of this term and beyond, which could include sustained strike action and marking &amp; assessment boycotts. <\/strong>Senior management\u2019s third teaching term requires every module in the university to be rewritten and adds a whole extra term of overwork, so staff may be forced to strike if it\u2019s voted through at Senate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cTwo teaching terms\u201d is supported by lecturers and support staff<\/strong>, whereas three teaching terms has been concocted without meaningful consultation with staff or students. Senior management are violating university ordinances by imposing changes before any formal vote by the University Senate. Kent Union and Kent UCU agree senior management\u2019s plans are far too rushed. Kent Union have asked for Kent UCU to be consulted on details and this has not been respected.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cTwo teaching terms\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>is a more incremental change that could allow the university to improve timetabling.<\/strong>\u00a0In contrast, the \u201cthree teaching terms\u201d will be such a drastic change that there is <em>no chance <\/em>of them delivering \u2018block timetabling\u2019. Staff have no confidence in the Director of Education Richard Reece to deliver a whole new timetabling system: he can\u2019t even deliver an IT system or retain the students he\u2019s already got.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Kent Union-UCU Relations Are Positive &#8211; Especially Over Compulsory Modules<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Kent Union share your trade union\u2019s opposition to \u201ccompulsory modules\u201d in areas like Arts and Humanities<\/strong>: all the data proves it will tank recruitment and lead to mass redundancies. A critical mass of Heads of School and Directors of Recruitment have just submitted a forensic 25-page report on this issue to the Project Team.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kent Union were very impressed and persuaded by the UCU-supported survey of 500 students over compulsory modules <\/strong>&#8211; they <em>will <\/em>listen if we present them with survey evidence of students\u2019 views. It is notoriously difficult for Student Unions to reach students, but as lecturers and support staff we have unique relationships with students to empower them to take back control of their university.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kent Union have made clear that they will not support\u00a0senior management\u2019s disastrous academic year changes\u00a0if students choose a different approach (see email for link to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/2023\/10\/30\/student-survey-deadline-7th-november\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53579,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ucuuok\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}