Following the announcement of yet more university staff strikes, a Newcastle MP has urged the city’s universities to resolve the disputes with staff to stop the disruption to students’ education.
On March 4, the University and College Union (UCU) announced that 68 universities would be taking five more days of strikes before the Easter holidays. This was the third wave of industrial action taken this academic year.
Labour MP for Newcastle Central, Chi Onwurah, told BBC Politics North that universities need to offer a better deal in order to end the strikes and disruption which has affected students. She said: ‘You cannot get a good education unless the lecturers and researchers are properly paid.’
‘I have been shocked by the level of transient work and insecurity we have in some of our great universities. The employers need to sort this out because we don’t want to see the students having their studies so impacted,’ Onwurah continued.
In February, chair of Newcastle UCU Matt Perry explained that the strikes were not just about cuts to pensions, but about casualisation.’
‘We are increasingly seeing universities use insecure contracts, especially for young staff members, which is totally unnecessary. That’s paired with increased pressure on staff who are working well above their contracted hours,’ he said.
According to Perry, staff at the university are ‘at breaking point’ which is coming ‘at a real cost to people’s health.’
Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said that vice chancellors could ‘easily end this dispute and prevent further disruption’ but instead they ‘would rather attack the pensions, pay and working conditions of their own staff and damage the sector at the same time.’
‘Students and staff alike deserve better leadership than this, and we hope that this action and our reballot of members for future action will make employers see sense,’ Grady stated.
The chief executive of the independent regulator of higher education, Nicola Dandridge, said that institutions should ‘consider offering partial tuition fee refunds,’ due to the disruption caused to students because of the strikes.