There’s an interesting and quite striking poster aimed at students that explains the background to the current pay dispute and this is well worth a look if you have a couple of minutes: https://www.unison.org.uk/upload/sharepoint/On%20line%20Catalogue/21928.pdf
There’s loads more stuff, most of it pretty good, and including strike posters and leaflets at: http://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/education-services/key-issues/he-pay-dispute/resources/
It could be added that the pay of academic staff in the UK lags badly behind most of the rest of Europe…. In an informal discussion with a lecturer colleague today he told me that pay in India is about on a par with pay here and that it’s more generous in China. (This is not taking into account the far superior buying power of the local currencies in those countries.)
Bear this in mind next time you hear that familiar argument about executives (and Vice Chancellors) having to be paid loads of cash to prevent them running off to some nirvana where they will be paid even more, retaining talent, the brain drain etc etc. The flipside of this is that talented academics really will vote with their feet and go and teach where the grass, and the dollar bills, are greener. A year or two of that and where will Kent’s NSS results have ended up I wonder.
I somehow think that’s a message that won’t end up on the University’s twitter feed though.
Recent Comments