UK students panic as emergency AUT talks collapse
Final year students all over the country are facing severe disruption to their degrees after the Association of University Teachers (AUT) rejected the final pay offer made by the Universities and College Employers' Association (UCEA).
After days of talks, the offer of a 12.6% pay rise over three years was dismissed this week as the AUT claimed it was not a "decent offer... it is dressed-up to represent 12.6% [when it is really] worth less than 11% in real terms". Jocelyn Prudence (Chief Executive of the UCEA) called these calculations "misleading" and said that the offer "exceeds the [AUT's] original demand". She also criticised the Union for not putting the offer to its members for a vote.
This latest breakdown in the emergency discussions leaves many final-year students considering legal action against their universities as they are uncertain as to whether their exams will take place and even whether they will graduate. Many say that this situation is preventing them from finding employment, leaving them with lost earnings, a feeling of helpless limbo, and a bitterness that is mainly directed at the UCEA and their own institutions.
Imperial is not affected by these developments since staff at College are under local pay negotiations and cannot take part in the national dispute. However, IC staff are also due for similar pay negotiation before August this year, but talks have not yet begun. The situation does not bode well for higher education in general as anger grows over the inequality in pay rises between education staff and university administration. Over the last three years vice-chancellors have been awarded an average increase of 25%.
The AUT fears a `meltdown' across higher education as exams are cancelled and marking deadlines come and go. Edinburgh, Aberystwyth and Liverpool universities have already cancelled upto twenty exams, and many universities are advising that their students check daily for updates on the internet.
Universities are attempting to quell the disruption by implementing emergency contingency plans, but this is causing concern in some quarters about the quality of degrees awarded this year, fearing that standards will not be upheld.
As tempers fray on both sides of the debate, more strikes are planned. Some universities have begun to dock lecturers' pay for failing to mark exams; an end to the deadlock is still not in sight.
