Letters – 11 April 2019

Should UCU head be an academic?

The general secretary of the University and College Union should be an academic (“Pension tactics central to UCU leadership race”, News, 4 April). A UCU leader should be someone who knows exactly what it means to be an academic and who is motivated by the potential improvements in their own working conditions that can come from the UCU action. Non-academics cannot grasp things like the gravity of the research excellence framework, the grant funding system, pressure to publish, pressure to get research grants, university politics, nepotism, student complaints, student demands, fixed term postdocs, associate lecturing, and more issues. This is why the UCU has failed so many times. The non-academics in charge of the UCU just have not got the foggiest idea about the actual reality of academic careers. Reading blogs, textbooks about industrial relations or reports from the UCU activists is not quite the same as actually having worked as an academic.

If there were more academics to choose from that would be great, but I shall certainly only vote for the academic.

Tennison Racket
Via timeshighereducation

Being an academic does not necessarily give you any special insight into how to conduct union business usefully and effectively. In fact it is a bit of an absurd notion that the UCU general secretary has to be an academic. No one would dream of suggesting that the leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union had to be a train driver or the head of the National Union of Teachers a teacher. The important thing is knowing where your members’ interests lie and knowing what battles can be won. An academic will not be uniquely aware of this and indeed may be “standing too close” to things to be objective.

h.moss
Via timeshighereducation.com

Source of concern

 An open letter to the ­­­­vice-chancellor­ of the University of London

On Friday 29 March, we arrived with other academics at Senate House to attend the Memories of the Future conference. Outside we were met by a peaceful Boycott Senate House picket, which introduced us to a campaign highlighting the conditions of outsourced workers at the University of London. This campaign has been active since late 2017, with a boycott running from December 2018, to ensure that outsourced workers are brought in-house. At the moment, conditions are significantly worse for outsourced workers, including reduced sick pay, pension rates, maternity leave and holidays.

While the Memories of the Future conference organisers were aware of the boycott, no attempt had been made to inform us. Faced with this situation, we felt that we had no choice but to observe the boycott and walk away. We held two alternative events, following the example of more than 150 other events that have relocated in support of the workers. Academic labour cannot be isolated from all the other forms of work underpinning it. As academics, our main tool is critique. Critique holds no value without solidarity. Neoliberal precarity affects everyone employed by academic institutions, and our demand for social justice in no way undermines the labour of our fellow university workers.

We demand that the University of London negotiate with the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain to put an imminent end to worker outsourcing; that academics and conference organisers refuse to organise events in Senate House and other boycotted university buildings; and actively work to support the cause of the outsourced workers.

Alexavier Iu, Alison Atkinson-Phillips (Newcastle University), Amy Butt (University of Reading), Anders Høghansen (Malmö University), Caroline Molley (Coventry University), Colin Sterling (UCL Institute of Archaeology), Deborah Schultz (Regents University), Erica Masserano (University of East London), Fazia Aitel (Claremont McKenna College), Felice Momarlo (Goldsmiths), Francis Gene-Rowe (Royal Holloway, University of London), Hannah Vinter (Kings College London), Jean Boyd (University of Gloucestershire), Karen Shepherdson (University of Canterbury), Kate Warner (University of Queenland, Australia), Katie Stone (Birkbeck, University of London), Kirsten Forkert (Birmingham City University), Marielle Lippmann (University of Paris Diderot), Nicky Bird (Glasgow School of Art), Peter Conlin (Coventry University), Raphael Kabo (Birkbeck, University of London), Sing Yun Lee Sonia Stegmaier (Kings College London), Tasmin Qutait (SOAS), Tom Dillon (Birkbeck, University of London), Vincent Chabany-Douarre (Kings College London), Aren Roukema (Birkbeck, University of London), Sasha Myerson (Birkbeck, University of London)

UCL bucks trend

Following your report (“Support for entrepreneurship in UK universities in freefall”, News, 4 April), in a random sample of one, UCL is bucking this trend. Interest in student entrepreneurship and graduate start-ups has grown 57 starts, 162 jobs and £6.7 million external investment (2017-18). The current year shows that we have already surpassed these figures. Entrepreneurship is very much alive and very much kicking, adding jobs and growth to the local community.

But we, as enterprise educators, have work to do across the landscape to make a real difference in our communities, especially against the backdrop of Brexit.

Jerry Allen
UCL director for entrepreneurship and director of Enterprise Educators UK