Protest on Tremough campus

A recent FX protest march through Falmouth. (photo: Flex)

Students and staff based on the Tremough campus are protesting against Falmouth University’s decision to transfer the contracts of 130 members of Academic and Support staff to a private company owned by Falmouth and the University of Exeter, known as FX Plus. This is the first time that a UK university has transferred its entire Student Support service to an external company.

The employees at the University, which gained full university status in December, work in a variety of student support roles, including Library and IT Services, academic skills assistants and disability support teams. Their new roles within FX Plus will mean that they are no longer entitled to receive pay in line with national standards, since university-owned subsidiaries such as FX Plus are allowed to operate outside these pay scales.

One member of staff at Falmouth, who did not wish to be named, told Times Higher Education that a librarian newly recruited to FX Plus could be paid as much as £5,000 a year less than staff moving over from Falmouth.

“That is a very significant amount when you are on the lower end of the pay scale,” she said.

In a statement on behalf of FXU (Falmouth and Exeter Students’ Union), Falmouth President Scott Pearson said: “We have been assured by both Falmouth University and Falmouth Exeter Plus that there will be no adverse effect on the delivery of services to students”, while FX Plus Chief Executive Niamh Lamond has assured staff that their contracts will not be altered.

Speaking to Flex, Falmouth University’s student newspaper, a member of the FX Protest who wished to remain anonymous said of FX Plus: “It’s not directly accountable to the students in the way a University is. Our concern is that it takes away that accountability.”

The falmouthexeterprotest website has also expressed concerns over the move, as staff will potentially be linked to regional pay scales in Cornwall, one of the poorest counties in England, rather than the national scales to which they were previously associated. They claim that the move will disadvantage students undertaking Higher Education in Cornwall, as they believe that a lower pay scale will reduce institutions’ capacities to attract the best applicants for their job roles.

The protestors have said on their website that “there has been no clear argument or evidence presented to us that demonstrate how [the outsourcing] will improve services. We know that no alternative models have been looked at and staff have not been consulted on the decision making process.”

News of this protest comes amidst a national backdrop of university privatisation controversies, after 400 students at Sussex University protested against the outsourcing of catering and support staff earlier this year, with 200 students occupying a lecture theatre.

Owen Keating, News Editor 

 

University of Exeter: A Business or a Centre for Education?

Photo credits to the University of Exeter

Claire Smy discusses the recent sacking and reinstatement of English Department Lecturer Sam North.

I write to voice my concern for the wider issue I feel surrounds the events of the last week.

As a teacher of English to secondary and A-Level students I have seen, over the course of the last several years, the limitations that have been placed on teachers by ‘managers’ who see themselves as running businesses rather than centres for education. Government targets and the charging of tuition fees have moved the goalposts so far away from the beliefs and passions of grass roots teachers, that many now find themselves in a position where they are teaching to exams, setting targets that are unattainable purely for the sake of setting targets, and spending much of the time they would otherwise be dedicating to planning stimulating and informative lessons to filling in data and ticking boxes. It is exhausting, demoralising and damaging.

To see education as a business is to forget one vital factor. Pupils and students are not bits of data – they are human beings. They are human beings who are open to new ideas and to discovering new passions; and inspirational teaching, by staff members who have the time, energy and freedom to inspire their students, is key to the success of those who are on the receiving end of our education
system.

Sam North, in his open letter to The Tab, states ‘one of the things [universities] have to watch out for is not to baby students along as if they were still at school.’ It is a sad indictment of our school system, but one that holds a lot of truth. Pupils who have not been able to explore their subjects fully and in a spontaneous way, have limited knowledge and understanding both of the subjects they study, and of the world around them. It is my belief that box-ticking and the worry of Ofsted scores and league tables has been largely responsible for creating this ignorance and lack of autonomy. And where do university students come from? They come from schools.

Tuition fees have, it seems, ensured that now universities too are concerned with box-ticking and league tables, and are in very grave danger of churning out graduates who know what they need to know but do not have the necessary skills to find out more. And what does that mean for British industry? It is all very well being able to get a job upon graduating because one has the right piece of paper, but graduates who cannot think for themselves are of very little use to anyone.

Sam North may not have ticked the boxes that secured sufficient funding for Exeter University, but I know from first-hand experience that he has the most wonderful ability to make his students think for themselves. He is able, through his skill and expertise, his care and compassion, to facilitate the ability in students to go inside their own minds and find the amazing creativity that lurks in its darkest corners. This is a rare skill indeed, and one that Exeter University and its students – past and present – are incredibly lucky to have the benefit of.

Claire Smy

Should lecturers at the university have an obligation to secure funding or is their ability to teach a more valuable asset? Leave a comment below or write to the Comment team at the Exeposé Comment Facebook Group.