University staff strikes: Yet another blow for disrupted students

Report by ITV Meridian Social Affairs Correspondent Christine Alsford

For the students who have just settled back into face to face learning this industrial action couldn't have come at a worse time. 

For nearly 18 months their studies have been hugely disrupted - so many frustrated and angry about spending large chunks of their degree courses learning online from their bedrooms.  And so many have struggled, some complaining about the poor quality of their remote teaching.    

Now, according to union bosses, around 1 million students around the country face three days of action - lectures potentially cancelled, seminars scrapped, learning lost. And if you only receive eight or 10 hours of contact time a week for your £9,250 in fees some feel that's frustrating, painful and unfair.

Universities have an obligation to make sure students aren't adversely affected and say they are doing everything they can to mitigate the impact - but in many cases early indications are that the strike has turned out to be a damp squib. At one University in the South only around 1 per cent of staff are believed to have walked out. 

Of course many students support their lecturers, pointing out if staff are overworked and stretched thin they can't give students the time, input, feedback and support they deserve. 

As one said: "The working conditions in the university are our learning conditions."

The University and College Union puts the blame for the strikes firmly at the doors of University management - claiming erosion of pay, pensions and unreasonable workloads.

They also point to the huge investment in university buildings, accommodation and Vice Chancellor pay - at a time when they say they have faced cuts on pay in real terms and increasing workloads. 

University bosses in turn say the union figures are exaggerated, they remain willing to talk about viable options, pensions remain generous, the pension fund needs reform.But in this long running dispute - which predates the start of the pandemic - it's the students who are caught in the middle. 

The UCU say in addition to the 58 universities taking action this week another 42 will reballot with a view to further action in the New Year. For students, a resolution in the season of goodwill, would be warmly welcomed.

After what they've already endured, a winter of discontent on campus is the last thing they need.