In case you havent seen yet, the SU are running a brief consultation on whether to support a proposed marking ban by academic staff as part of the UCU industrial dispute that has seen several 2 hour strikes and a couple of all-day ones. More information from UCU is available here: ucu.org.uk/6964 In a few months time many of us will graduate, hopefully, and at that graduation the university, through its high officers, governors and vice-chancellor, will lay it on thick that you will always be part of the Brookes community, that the value of your degree in the future depends on Brookes, and UK Higher Education in general, retaining its reputation and growing in prestige. Yet they somehow want you to believe that that can be achieved by constant pressure on staff to do more for less, while the new-ish culture of managerialism in higher education allows university bosses to pocket huge year on year increases for little contribution to the actual processes of learning, teaching, research and day to day support that the rest of the staff get on with. Many people in forums I have read about this issue are worried about their graduation, and how any delay to that might affect job offers and such like. That is obviously a concern, and its easy for me, already in a job I have no intention of changing immediately anyway, to ask you all to support a move that might adversely affect you. But there are some things to bear in mind that I hope will allow you to support the action: > Last time there was a marking boycott (2006) it did bring the employers back to the negotiating table, it was resolved in time for subject examination committees and therefore graduation, by a steady pressure from both students and staff on management to resolve the situation in time. > They have, effectively, around six nail-biting weeks, between the start of the boycott on 28th April and SECs to sort something out - you can always ask the SU to stop supporting the action if it drags on later. > Industrial action, sadly, *is* about inconveniencing people, and in most cases it *is* the consumers. The idea is that consumers will recognise that it is as much the intransigence of management and not simply bolshie staff, who share the blame and must share the responsibility to resolve the situation. > Everyone will be in this together - if the boycott goes ahead, you will not be disadvantaged any more than students at other universities where the action is taking place. It is a national pay bargaining process and all UCU branches will be supporting the action. Employers recognise this. Indeed for some, it might mean that you get a job you were offered on condition of, say, a 2:1, on the basis of your previous record excluding final results, but if you later discover you got a 2:2 it is far less likely a good employer will get rid of you after they have taken you on. Whilst on the other hand, if the employer insists on waiting to see your final results, they will be doing so for everyone affected, not just you. So anyway, the very brief consultation questionnaire is on this Google form (accessible signed in as your Brookes Google account): https://docs.google/a/brookes.ac.uk/forms/d/1DjBll9xQBa_ROa6ROR9D0bwoP8FuT43EcoKdaFerfL8/viewform
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:49:17 +0000
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