Better pay at Tesco, casual staff claim

The army of casual staff in UK universities is rarely given a voice. These workers are often too insecure to speak out about their conditions and not well-represented in departmental meetings or on university committees.

Which is why the hundreds of comments to the Association of University Teachers' online survey are so revealing, and they do not paint a happy picture.

"I would be better off working at Tesco, for both income and quality of life," said one disgruntled teaching-only academic on an hourly paid contract at Birkbeck, University of London.

The majority of respondents were on fixed-term contracts. Of these, 64 per cent were full time, 42 per cent were on research-only contracts and 22 per cent on teaching-only contracts. About one in five did teaching and research, with the rest engaged in administration.

The big complaint of this group was insecurity. "Permanent staff in my office have a no-redundancy agreement, non-permanent staff do not. We feel that the university is sending a clear signal to other staff that our area of work is not as important as other work," said an academic from Liverpool.

The majority said that they worked longer hours than they were paid for.

Some 17 per cent said that they worked an additional ten to 14 hours a week without pay and 11 per cent said they worked for 15 or more hours a week without pay.

Many complained that they were not given adequate resources to do their jobs. One in six did not have a computer at work and nearly a quarter said they were not invited to staff or departmental meetings. Some 41 per cent said they had regular review or appraisal meetings.

About half the researchers said that they could not apply for funding in their own name. And those who could apply encountered obstacles. "I am encouraged to apply to grant-awarding bodies as principal investigator, but the awarding bodies will not always consider my application because the grant, if awarded, may extend beyond my fixed-term contract," one researcher said.

When asked what they would like most, nine out of ten said they wanted permanent contracts.

For the hourly-paid workers who responded - the majority of whom were in teaching - poor pay was a big issue. Some 7 per cent of hourly-paid respondents earned between £5 and £9.99 an hour and nearly half earned between £10 and £24.99 an hour.

"I would earn as much or more at a fast-food restaurant," said a teaching-only hourly-paid academic at St Andrews University.

The majority of hourly-paid staff were employed on contracts shorter than 12 months. Nearly three quarters said they would prefer a permanent contract.

Employers seem to think that I should hang around until the last minute before they even start to try to do something about extending or renewing my contract. There have been cases of researchers on their last day being told at lunchtime that their contract has been extended by a few weeks and please stay!

Researcher, Belfast

The system can only be described as feudal.

Researcher, University of East Anglia

The uncertainty of short-term contracts is very stressful and difficult to manage when you try also to build a family.

Researcher, Cardiff

The trap of the so-called research-led universities means an endless round of fixed-term contracts, making it impossible to get adequate pension provision. And don't even start me on trying to get a mortgage.

Part-time researcher, Bolton Institute

Short fixed-term contracts make maternity leave a practical impossibility - maternity leave will lead to non-renewal with nohope of being able to prove that case

Researcher, St Andrews