I was most interested to read Domenico Pacitti's article (THES, August 23) "Rome set for 'foreigners' deal", according to which the Italian government is taking action to improve the terms and conditions of foreign language lecturers and is "committed to achieving a swift and equitable solution to this protracted and embarrassing problem, which has been tarnishing the image of Italian universities in Europe".
In my personal experience, conditions of foreign language teachers at British universities are certainly no better than those of their counterparts in Italian universities, and it would appear that they are even worse.
Yet, I am not aware of any similar action being taken by our own government to improve the conditions of foreign language teachers at our universities, who may be employed * in breach of both domestic and European law * on consecutive yearly fixed-term contracts for periods of up to 15 years * on a part-time basis, but with a teaching commitment which may exceed that of a full-time teacher * without written contracts * without written statements of the terms of employment, as required by law * paid arbitrarily (and paid peanuts), without reference to the agreed pay structure for university teachers * without entitlement to incremental pay * without sick pay * without access to the statutory maternity rights * without access to the occupational pension scheme (although the scheme admits both full-time and part-time teachers) * without access to promotion, irrespective of qualifications and years of service * without access to the university's grievance and appeals procedures.
I am collecting information and would like to hear from any foreign language teachers who are or have been employed at British universities. Please write to: Ursula Riniker 6 Devonshire Court London N17 7NJ