Student Soapbox: “lectures missed, lessons learnt”

When your university is gripped by the militant leftism of ’lazy lecturers’ and the inconvenience of industrial action, you almost certainly need a dedicated team of principled fellow students fighting to save your education from oblivion. At Warwick, our prayers were answered, by a group of History students bravely stepping in to limit the damage (to our pockets at least) of our lecturers decision to strike.

However, the intentions of the group claiming to stand up for students was laid bare. As comforting as it would be to know that this attention-seeking storm remained resolutely in the campus teacup, the organisers were instead given notoriety in both the local and national press. They got their 15 minutes of fame… but our academic staff? Still underpaid.

We were reassured that the motivations of the group were not ideological, but merely stirred by a genuine concern for students’ learning. Yet the logic behind this apparently altruistic mission is painfully short-sighted. The organisers have oversimplified the current debate in higher education. Their populist hyperbole may have brought some students to their replacement lectures, but it failed to mention the complexities of what the recent dispute means.

a group of untrained undergrads (who claim Katie Hopkins as their spiritual leader no less) can never replace our lecturers.

Once again, egos were satisfied, the real issues, ignored. Like most students, I’m disappointed to be missing lectures, they are after all the reason we’re here and ongoing industrial action will no doubt disrupt my timetable. Yet I don’t blame the academic staff for this, whose conscious decision to withdraw their labour was undermined by the student-run lectures.

Rather, as students, we should be channeling our frustration at the obstinacy of the university elites who refuse to dignify the academic profession with sustainable pay. Maybe we owe the organisers some thanks. I completely agree that the ‘learning will go on.’ Warwick has learnt one very important lesson: a group of untrained undergrads (who claim Katie Hopkins as their spiritual leader no less) can never replace our lecturers.

Comparing my loss of an hour–long lecture with an interest for the livelihoods of the academic staff who work to give me opportunities – I know where I, and the majority of students, will stand.

[divider] flikr.com/ian-s