68% of Warwick teaching staff on “precarious contracts”, the Guardian reports

Following a recently published investigation by the Guardian into precarious employment at Russell Group universities, it has been found the majority of teaching staff at Warwick are on insecure contracts.

The article – the Guardian’s front page headline story on Thursday 17 November – states higher education “is now dominated by zero-hours contracts, temp agencies and other forms of precarious work”.

Trade unionists have consequently accused universities of using a model similar to that of Sports Direct.

68.1% of Warwick’s teaching and teaching-and-research staff are on fixed-term or atypical contracts, it is reported – the highest proportion of any Russell Group university, bar Birmingham.

For comparison, Cambridge ranked lowest in the study with only 13.4% of its teaching staff employed on insecure contracts. The Russell Group average stood at 49.7%.

There are worries a “two-tier” system is now in place – with a minority of well-paid professors and lecturers enjoying relative job security on the one hand, and low-paid junior staff “struggling to get by” on the other.

Three quarters of junior academics at Russell Group universities are on precarious contracts.

Other concerns include the prioritisation of expensive building projects over paying staff a living wage. The Oculus, an £19 million interdisciplinary building, was recently opened on campus.

The statistics used in the Guardian’s investigation were compiled by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, and analysed by the University and College Union (UCU).

On Thursday 24 November, the UCU are staging “a day of action against precarious work”. Events will include recruitment stalls, campaign launches advice surgeries. The UCU does not currently have a branch at Warwick.

These findings into precarious work come after Warwick announced plans to implement TeachHigher (a private temping agency) in April 2015. Many equated the move to an “outsourcing” of teaching.

Following criticism and national media coverage, the proposals were dropped in June 2015.

Hope Worsdale, Warwick Students’ Union Education Officer, commenting on the findings, said: “They are of great concern, not only from a perspective of supporting workers’ rights, but also of how this can (and does) impact on students’ academic experience.

“When staff are over-burdened and put under such pressure, it’s inevitable that teaching and feedback quality will suffer in some way. We must not forget that academics’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.

“Warwick is gaining a reputation in this area for all the wrong reasons, especially following on from the disastrous TeachHigher proposal that was successfully defeated in Summer 2015. Warwick must do better!”

She added: “The extent of casualised, precarious, low-paid work at Warwick is a scandal.”

Warwick Students’ Union Postgraduate Officer, Nat Panda, also commented on the findings, stating: “The extent of casualised, precarious, low-paid work at Warwick is a scandal even in the context of an exploitative sector. Postgraduates who teach find themselves squarely in this category which is not only detrimental to these teachers but also undermines the teaching that students expect and deserve to receive.

“The situation is easily turned around and the steps to do so are hardly controversial: pay sessional teachers for all the hours worked; pay them at a rate that reflects the importance of the teaching they provide; and give them the rights and respect they deserve by treating them as University employees.

“When there is a power imbalance, collective organising and escalation of protest are necessary in order to leverage strength. This was essential in defeating the money-driven TeachHigher scheme. Its successor, the Sessional Teaching Payroll offers some improvement but is too timid to address the root problems.”

Nat added: “Thus, sessional teachers will continue to demand what is fair and utilise protest to make their voices heard and the Students’ Union will continue to support students in this fight.”

The university has been approached for comment. This article will be updated when a response has been received.