Fairness is needed in Higher Education-not just for students but also for staff
Yesterday, the Young Greens (the part of the Green Party that caters to those under the age of 30) published a report of the damning inequalities between the pay of Vice-Chancellors and senior staff at universities and the pay of most of their staff.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/pay-ratios-point-to-massive-inequality/2008207.article
The lack of real university democracy is somewhat responsible for this. Across Great Britain, many courses are being cut unnecessarily by unelected and unaccountable Vice-Chancellors and senior managers, who not only often ignore the reasonable requests by democratic Student Unions to protect students' interests but in some cases repress student activism, as has been shown at the Universities of Sussex and London, and in an undemocratic decision by university managers at London colleges to close the University of London Union.
Universities are supposed to be public institutions, dedicated to higher education and knowledge. Yet many universities are at the moment being run in a neoliberal or semi-neoliberal way i.e. like a business, as the pay gaps of many prominent British universities show, with Surrey being the worst, and Bath employing the highest number of minimum wage staff, as opposed to living wage staff.
It is clear that those students amongst us who read this need to work with ancilliary staff and our lecturers (who, whilst often well-paid compared to an average worker, still earn less than 1/5 the salary of their Vice-Chancellor) to campaign for a living wage and also for universities to be more democratic and accountable not only to students but also to the public at large, so that they are run for the benefit of the public and not the benefit of businesses seeking to exploit newly qualified undergraduates/postgraduates.
I wish to hear your thoughts on this matter.
Alan.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/pay-ratios-point-to-massive-inequality/2008207.article
The lack of real university democracy is somewhat responsible for this. Across Great Britain, many courses are being cut unnecessarily by unelected and unaccountable Vice-Chancellors and senior managers, who not only often ignore the reasonable requests by democratic Student Unions to protect students' interests but in some cases repress student activism, as has been shown at the Universities of Sussex and London, and in an undemocratic decision by university managers at London colleges to close the University of London Union.
Universities are supposed to be public institutions, dedicated to higher education and knowledge. Yet many universities are at the moment being run in a neoliberal or semi-neoliberal way i.e. like a business, as the pay gaps of many prominent British universities show, with Surrey being the worst, and Bath employing the highest number of minimum wage staff, as opposed to living wage staff.
It is clear that those students amongst us who read this need to work with ancilliary staff and our lecturers (who, whilst often well-paid compared to an average worker, still earn less than 1/5 the salary of their Vice-Chancellor) to campaign for a living wage and also for universities to be more democratic and accountable not only to students but also to the public at large, so that they are run for the benefit of the public and not the benefit of businesses seeking to exploit newly qualified undergraduates/postgraduates.
I wish to hear your thoughts on this matter.
Alan.
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