The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 26th May 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 26th May 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
During the Blair era Labour posed as a champion of “education, education, education” whilst imposing masked cuts to the schools’ budget in England and Wales. In what are hopefully the latter stages of the Sunak Government things are even worse in all levels of the education sector, but there is welcome reaction from those at the chalk-face.
Starting at the top, we open by looking at some ongoing struggles in the universities. They have issues that affect not just professors and lecturers, but also technicians, typists, librarians and cleaners, without all of whom universities could not function. One such is the long-standing pension dispute. The University and College Union (UCU) claims that it would be easy for the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) to reverse a 35 per cent benefit cut made in April 2022 as the scheme has a £7.6 billion surplus.
Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary, said: “This latest report confirms we are on course for the biggest pension win in UK trade union history. We were told it was impossible to take back a stolen pension but we are now on course for a historic victory that will send shockwaves through the workers movement.”
This is not surprising as the better British universities are presently thriving, largely due to the large number of high-fee-paying students from China presently doing higher degrees. This will not last as China’s universities are getting bigger and better, with the prospect of bright British students heading off east in the future.
UCU has condemned bosses for refusing to negotiate pay and conditions despite having large enough surpluses to increase pay by 10 per cent with £hundreds of millions to spare. At present UK universities rake in £44.6 billion, an increase of £3.5 billion from the previous year; there is a £2.6 billion surplus, with £19.6 in cash and current investment holdings. At the same time staff expenditure is only 51 per cent of income, which is an all-time low.
The bosses claim the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS) is too expensive for the post-1992 universities (the former polytechnics) and that any increases will come at the cost of jobs, both present and future, and student services.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) do not accept this. In the 2021/22 financial year, UCEA imposed a 1.5 per pay award, which was about a 10th of the inflation rate. UCU claims that since 2009, real wages have fallen by a quarter. Nevertheless, UCEA says it will not negotiate unless UCU calls off its marking and assessment boycott at 145 universities and colleges. UCU say that UCEA is entirely responsible for the dispute. It accuses bosses of punitive pay deductions of up to 100 per cent, whilst staff are only on a work to rule.
UCU also accuses UCEA of focusing on a small number of institutions that are in difficulty to pretend it cannot afford to produce a fair pay offer for its members.
Ms Grady warned that: “A national scandal is brewing that will see hundreds of thousands of students graduate with degrees not worth the paper they are written on, unless universities make staff a fair pay offer. With the employer body now refusing to negotiate students and their parents will rightly be furious.”
On Monday, the august, and well-heeled University of Cambridge called on UCEA, to resume negotiations with UCU so that students can graduate. Anthony Freeling, acting vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and Michael Abberton, President of UCU’s Cambridge branch, issued a statement to that effect.