SUPPORT THE AUT

Posted on April 25, 2006
Filed Under AUT/Natfhe dispute, Uncategorized

(This letter originated with Kat Stark, the outgoing president of Warwick University Students’ Union.)

Dear Editor,

Re: ‘We are being used as pawns’, Independent Education, April 20th, pp.6-7

We thought your readers would be interested to hear from students’ unions, guilds and actual students who are in full support of the lecturers’ campaign for better pay. The officers quoted in last weeks article, selected from just two of the 750 institutions in NUS membership, may have given the impression that students have no interest in the future of education and the welfare of our teaching staff which is not the case at all.

Our lecturers have been underpaid and overworked for decades, which has had a massive impact on the quality of our education. We don’t want to be taught by lecturers who are poorly paid and working hours and hours of unpaid overtime. We understand that industrial action is the last straw, and note that the VC’s have given the teaching unions no other option but to strike.

And contrary to the impression put forward by your article, this is the overwhelming feeling amongst students. At Students’ Unions where referendums have been held on this issue, students have voted to support the lecturers. Some of the officers who signed the letter to AUT, like Sheffield, have broken policy which was democratically passed at their students’ union to support the lecturers!

To those students who are affected by the action, we say complain to your institution.

To those student leaders who have asked the AUT to back down, we say shame on you!

To those institutions docking pay for lecturers who are taking action, we say shame on you! And we ask UCEA to put a serious offer on the table and invest the top-up fees income wisely and where it is needed - in our teaching staff.