Strikes me as an odd way of achieving change
Monday morning greeted me with yet another email proclaiming that two more of my lectures have been cancelled this week due to staff strikes. Whilst the right to strike should, of course, be respected there is an uneasy feeling permeating throughout the university that students are being disproportionately and unfairly affected. After all, the suggestion that students should forgo these contact hours is a discredit to the excellence of the university and its academic staff.
Why is it that I find myself sitting in an empty lecture theatre for twenty minutes without having been given prior notice of the cancellation?
With the official staff line that ‘the action is emphatically NOT directed against students’, why is it that I find myself sitting in an empty lecture theatre for twenty minutes without having been given prior notice of the cancellation? Why is it that the unions are threatening to withhold student’s marks? Perhaps more worrying still is the indication that when students inevitably take up their exam seats in the summer term (regardless of any late night, energy-drink fuelled revision sessions) they will face questions on topics not covered by expert academic staff. Unlike the omnipresent effects that police or ambulance staff strikes have, strikes by academics disproportionately affect students.
Far from making an ideological point, students have taken it upon themselves to organise student run lectures in order to alleviate the effects on the student body.
Being a member of the second cohort of students to pay the higher £9,000 of fees makes this reality an expensively painful one. As a student of History with 10 hours a week of lectures and seminars, the strikes this academic year represent nearly 5% of our total contact hours so far or, if you prefer, £180 of our fees. This is before the series of two-hour ‘work stoppages’ scheduled to take place over the coming weeks are taken into consideration.
Far from making an ideological point, students have taken it upon themselves to organise student run lectures in order to alleviate the effects on the student body. Many students are aware with the issues surrounding staff pay, but, with life determining exams for all students heading steadfast towards us, our primary focus must be our education.
Students have set up a Facebook Group, ‘Warwick Student Lecturers – Learning Will Go On’ and this mantra is summative of the beneficial goals of these lectures.
I know that right now it might seem like an extra lay in on a Monday morning, but why shouldn’t we care about our education and, ultimately, our future?
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Header Image courtesy of Warwick Media Library
Comments (9)
Poor Maths… 5% of 9000 is 450.
Poor reading comprehension… “5% of our total contact hours so far”
This article is flawed in so many ways.
You’re completely and utterly missing the point. The “student led lectures” ARE fundamentally ideological in their very nature by defying the efforts staff are making to try and bring about change. By reducing the issue down to a simple ‘cost benefit analysis’ you’re not only perpetuating a dangerous myth that sees higher education as simply a financial investment, but also producing a grossly simplistic narrative that completely overlooks the issues that are currently damaging our university structure most. You think losing £180 is bad? Have you thought to ask how much money the staff, many of them on less than minimum wage, stand to lose? And how that compares proportionally? Let’s just say it’s a lot more than your measly 5%. By trying to create a divide between staff and students all you’re doing is creating a nasty ‘us vs them’ dichotomy that overlooks the fact that the most detrimental changes to our education system are actually affecting both parties in equal measure.
And finally, do you REALLY think that any staff would put a question on an exam about a topic you haven’t covered? Are you actually that ignorant?
I despair.
Do they really think a few strikes are going to “bring about change”? There are other ways of protesting that don’t damage their students’ education. At 9 grand a year, higher education is quite a significant financial investment I’d say. They’re as bad as militant teachers, striking because you don’t think your pay is increasing enough every year.
Teachers’ pay has decreased 13% in the last 5 years in real terms. Greedy, militant teachers….
Bit of a false dichotomy there. Lecturers can strike AND students can teach, and just because one side is worse off than another it doesn’t mean that both shouldn’t be able to better their situation.
You are an idiot, don’t speculate, you remind me of that Mitchell and Webb sketch where they are a news team and ask what people ‘reckon’ about issues.
The History department has already written the exams, some module leaders are refusing to change the papers. They are doing it, so please shut up about what you think is happening.
I hope next time there is a tube strike or a rail strike you don’t get on a replacement bus and stay at home, you filthy scab.
such vitriol alan, congrats. As a part of the history department, there are some things that don’t require speculation:
1) provisional exam papers were written over the christmas holidays and reviewed earlier this term. Any changes to the syllabus from term one will have been taken into account.
2) the department is not looking to punish anyone with exams; indeed it is of infinitely more use for its students to do well, not only for the module directors’ reputations but also for the department itself.
3) with both of the above in mind, and considering there are both further lectures and revision sessions to come before exams (in over three months time, it is worth pointing), there is adequate time for suitable preparations to be put in place to ensure students have everything they need to be capable of the exam.
as for the analogy, not withstanding the subtle differences between the two cases, I actually probably would stay at home, which i’m sure will horrify you. Don’t worry, they might have a Mitchell & Web episode about it though!
Change? You want to talk about change?I’ll talk about change – one time I met a woman from Dallas (on a train) and she told me a few things, I can tell you! So don’t try to talk to me about change, hippy!! Thanks, take care, Obsidian Thunderstorm xox