Students Frustrated With Pay Talks Failure

Tue, May 09, 2006

Source: Guardian

Students are "bitterly disappointed" that lecturers and employers have failed to reach an agreement on pay.

Students are "bitterly disappointed" that lecturers and employers have failed to reach an agreement on pay and will increase their push to have the marking boycott lifted, the National Union of Students (NUS) warned today.

The president of the NUS, Kat Fletcher, will make a special appeal to members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) at its annual conference in Scarborough later this week, urging lecturers to at least set exams.

The NUS said it remained committed to the lecturers' call for better pay, because "only a well-paid and highly motivated workforce can deliver the high-quality education that our members expect and deserve."

However, the union said it remained opposed to the decision of the AUT not to set exams, action that is threatening to delay graduations for as many as 300,000 students across the UK.

The AUT and the lecturers' union Natfhe, yesterday rejected a pay increase of 12.6% over three years from the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (Ucea).

Lecturers were demanding 23% over three years but Ucea had initially agreed to 6% over two years and increased the amount to 12.6% after an offer was made to local AUT branches in Scotland late last week. St Andrews and Aberdeen universities offered academic staff 12.5% over three years but the local members rejected the offer.

The president of the NUS, Kat Fletcher, said: "We are bitterly disappointed that talks have failed yet again. This is a crucial time for students, who just want to be able to take the exams they have been working hard for all year.

"We are seriously concerned about the lack of progress and will be sending a delegation to the AUT council in Scarborough this week, led by the vice-president and myself. We will be demanding an urgent meeting to discuss the AUT's action and the dispute and pressing strongly for exams to be set.

"If they [the unions] had heeded our calls on this subject right from the start of the dispute, students would be facing less disruption than they are now. Similarly, if the employers had been willing to engage with the unions weeks or even months ago this could have been sorted out way before exams were due to start."

The chief executive of Ucea, Jocelyn Prudence, said the lecturers' decision to reject the "best and final" offer was "reckless".

Ms Prudence said: "The improved offer we made represents a major increase in pay for staff in our universities and colleges of higher education. It comes on top of average 3% - 5% increases due under the current framework agreement on pay modernisation, as well as large increases in employers' pension contributions.

"It greatly exceeds the academic unions' original demand for one-third of additional income from top-up fees. Their refusal to even put the offer to their members is inexplicable and shows a serious disregard for students."

The general secretary of the AUT, Sally Hunt, said: "[The] AUT is incredibly disappointed that, after their promise of a serious offer last week, Ucea failed to even match the offers made to some Scottish universities in real terms.

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