A good deal on offer or a sellout? 6

If the deal achieved by the union is accepted in the ballot of members, the last nail will be driven into both the coffin of the UCU and that of the British university system. It's taken some 14 years since the abolition of the binary line in 1992 and the Orwellian pretence that Luton and the London School of Economics are both "universities".

Subsequently, there has been the transformation of the composition of academic staff, with the arrival of young people who can't remember when academics were paid on the same scale as administrative grade civil servants; of the socially mobile from non-professional backgrounds who think they are well paid; of leftwingers who approve of low pay; and increasingly of women who, in whatever occupation, are prone to exhibit expectation and tolerance of low pay.

Low pay is now well and truly confirmed. The deficit will never be corrected. Academics can enjoy low pay and low status for the duration, and look forward thereafter to poverty in retirement. An exemplary job well done.

Byron Criddle

Aberdeen