What do students think of the UCU strikes?
UAL students have differing opinions on their lecturers’ industrial action
Written by Masika Ismael and Nisreen Fox
Lecturers at University of the Arts London (UAL) are striking this week and next, alongside their colleagues at other UK universities. Their demands include include closing pay gaps, decreasing workload and ending casualisation. According to the Times of Higher Education, academic staff work more than two unpaid days per week and at UAL about a third of lecturers are paid hourly. The Vice Chancellor of UAL, James Purnell, earns a reported amount of over £200,000. This has led to future planned UCU action, with strike dates announced from the 15th of March to the 23rd.
Students are inevitably affected by their lecturers striking which can result in their classes being cancelled. We asked students at London College of Communication, part of UAL, what they think of the latest round of strikes.
Ana, an international student at LCC, told us she was losing patience with the disruption.
‘Throughout my five years of studying here I am beginning to become aggravated with the constant stop and start that has been affecting my academic career. Quite frankly, I believe that as an international student who is basically paying double the amount of fees, should be getting more hours on campus. I feel like the amount of money in comparison to how much I’m here and able to use the facilities doesn’t add up. If they’re doing strikes for their own sake I understand but I feel as if refunds should be given to those that have missed big chunks of study due to the UCU strikes’
Other students voiced support for their professors and the strikes. Sean, a BA Film student discussed his opinions on the strike action and how students can support their staff through this time.
‘Our supervisor comes across as incredibly overworked and we speak about the strikes openly with him. It does affect us outside of the strikes — and I mean in terms of my professor being so overworked from the strikes or rescheduling lectures that in turn overwork the professors and thus has a knock-on effect on us as they’re unable to facilitate us with the resources that we need. Personally, I feel like that’s far more disruptive than the strikes have been. However, I think despite all this, I support them. We might be missing class but at the end of the day, we’ve lost a lost more when it comes to the things they’ve been striking for. Something needs to change.’
However, many students on campus said they weren’t really affected by the strikes.
‘Honestly, I’m not really affected by these strikes. I study an MA in illustration and within that cohort, our professors are always in and never striking. I am in support of the strikes despite not being that involved with them at the university itself — I follow the page on Instagram, but I wish I did know more. I see other campuses such as CSM openly discussing the strikes and making students as aware as possible via social media, so it confuses me to see that LCC, another branch of the same university seems to not take this initiative. There’s definitely a lack of solidarity and I think that has a knock on effect of how students react to them.’ says Maryam, an MA Illustration student at LCC who wishes that there was a bigger effort in information and resources regarding the strikes provided to the students by the university.
