In response to the cost of living crisis, the University and College Union (UCU) have announced its plans to carry out a national strike for all academic staff on 24th, 25th and 30th of November.
In response to the cost of living crisis, the University and College Union (UCU) have announced its plans to carry out a national strike for all academic staff on 24th, 25th and 30th of November. This is expected to cause disruption to your timetable over the next two weeks as some lectures will be cancelled.
The impact of staff strikes on your education
If your lecturer is taking part in the strikes (not all will be), then your lectures, tutorials, and seminars will be cancelled on each day that the strikes are taking place. You can check your timetable by logging onto UDo and clicking on My Timetable as this is how the University will let you know about cancellations that they know about. Your lecturers may also inform you in advance that your session will be cancelled, but they are not legally required to do so, so you may turn up to a lecture to find that it has been cancelled. If your lecturer doesn't arrive within 15 minutes on the days of the strikes, it is likely that the lecture has been cancelled so please inform your College Student Centre.
Your Officer Trustees Owen, Alex, Callum, and Dominic ask lecturers to consider the impact this will have on students:
We understand and respect the need for protests against what is perceived by groups within society to be unfair or unjust, however, we also have an important duty to represent the best interests of the students especially when it directly impacts their education and student experience.
The Officer Trustees support the staff and their right to protest but hope that lecturers will let their students know if they intend to strike in order to minimise disruption and wasted travel or childcare arrangements.
The Student Voice
Last week, Vice President (Education) Alex ran an Instagram poll asking students to let us know what they thought about the strikes. The majority of students who took part in the poll were in support of the staff strike, noting that, should the conditions of the lecturers improve, that the quality of teaching will improve along with it. However, there are obvious concerns around the lack of learning and teaching during the strike period, with some comments mentioning that lecturers should pre-emptively set out work during the strike to not leave them at a detriment of their studies.
The results of the Instagram poll also found that students are concerned about value for money. The Officer Trustees have said that this is feedback they expected and understand:
We hope that lecturers will stay conscious of the financial impact this can have on students and be constantly communicating with students to give them plenty of time to make adjustments. What we also hope to see, as mentioned above, is that lecturers are actively making up for lost time with students.
What to do if your lecture is cancelled
In the event of your lectures being cancelled, please make good use of your time. You can do this by checking the course resources on Blackboard to see if the lecture slides are available, reading any course textbooks or journals to increase your understanding of the module, or by forming a study group with other students on your course to discuss and share knowledge and ideas.