University management
Warning: long and not funny

As I have yet to receive my degree I will refrain from naming the uni in particular, but we have been on the news in recent months and probably will be again soon at the rate things are going, so I'm sure you'll probably work it out.

Anyhoo as I'm sure a lot of you know, universities are struggling with money right now, like a lot of places. Some unis have more sensible money saving ideas than others. My particular university has decided that its particular solution to the crisis is to make a lot of lecturers redundant. And I mean A LOT. However, for "business reasons" management and our cunt of a pro vice chancellor are getting quite significant pay rises. The redundancies also happen to mainly affect the sciences (I'm in chemistry) with some more minor changes to English and History and surprise, surprise, no redundancies in Media or Psychology. Oh and they're also getting rid of modern language degrees, which some might argue are about THE most useful arts degree anyone can do. So there's a lot of pissed off students and lecturers right now, chemistry more so pissed off and out for blood than anyone due to the fact it's only been 4 years since they tried to close us and we happen to be one of the smallest and best departments in the country. In announcing who was likely to get made redundant last week, after our bastard traitor of a head of school has been going on and on about how he wants to push medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, it turns out most of our organic lecturers are being made redundant, meaning that new staff will have to employed if they truly do want to do medicinal chemistry (and they have started advertising already - apparently experience is not necessary!) and that we may well lose our RSC accreditation. Not only that, but the lecturer they want to get rid of is one of the best teachers in the department - I only managed to pass organic chem (which I'm shit at) because of him. So yeah, that's bad management of the highest degree here.

However, this means that there has been quite a backlash, understandably, from the unions. The strikes so far have not really affected me too badly, apart from making me feel awful about crossing picket lines to come in to finish the last of my reseach project. But now one particular union has decided to fight cuntishness with cuntishness. In the fact that they're trying to disrupt the awarding of degrees to finalists next week. I am a finalist. I have a place to do a PhD at Cambridge with a deadline for me confirming me degree result. There are no words to describe quite how angry I am at this point. Yes, I feel sorry for my lecturers and uni management have behaved appallingly. But to set out to deliberately delay degree results and essentially screw over any finalist who is relying on them for a job or postgrad place? You, unnamed union, are as big, if not worse of a cunt than uni management.

Screw you all.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 12:05, 22 replies)

that
is terrible, have you spoken to the Cambridge bods?
(Halfy By light alone, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 12:18, closed)

We've had an email
saying they have contingency plans in place and that it should all hopefully be ok. So I'm gonna wait and see what happens before phoning Cambridge, I'm fairly hopeful it'll all be ok actually. I'm pretty sure they'll give me an extention if they have to, obviously it's circumstances beyond my control and if needs be they can have my provisional marks for the year. But that's not the point - and I'm sure there's more than one person out there who won't have such an understanding company/uni waiting for marks and even if ultimately there is no disruption they've caused a lot of already stressed out students a lot more unnecessary hassle and worry.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 12:50, closed)

Ring 'em anyway.
They'll be perfectly understanding - if they've offered you the gig, it's because they want you to have it. However, you owe it to them to let them know what's happening.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 13:48, closed)

Having phoned them
it seems I'll be ok - as I'm a UK student they're flexible with deadlines and actually aren't too bothered.

Still though, there's a hell of a lot of people due to get results next week who may not have this luxury and it's them I feel sorry for. Stupid management and stupid unions.

Thanks for the support guys :)
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:07, closed)

They won't do it.
(disclaimer - your uni may employ at a higher cunt quotient) We'd never do anything actually harmful to a student. They'd just threaten it. Mind you, I don't do strikes regardless, so I'm probably not an unbiased source.

However, I'm confused. Are these wildcat strikes? cos non of the unions are on strike that I know of?

And Cambridge will be fine. Good UK Fud students are like rocking horse shit, despite the alleged recession. They'll bend over backwards to get you there.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:05, closed)

Not wildcat
They've even been announced on the local BBC news. It may be just our uni they're striking at though - last time around several unis all went on strike together but this time around I'd guess not.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:09, closed)

Blimey.
I was thinking of going back to uni this September, but this has made me think again.
My local is next to a uni, and they've just sacked loads; lecturers, IT support, the lot. Twunts.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Wed 16 Jun 2010, 12:20, closed)

Think carefully about it
I wouldn't recommend not going at all, but look closely at the department you're going to and whether there are going to be further cuts. If your local is next to a uni it's probably not mine as we're a bit out of the way but you can gaz me if you're worried anyway.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 12:52, closed)

not really twunts.
there are too many universities and too many students, it's unavoidable. It's called higher education for a reason, despite what successive governments seemed to think.

But the handling of it in most unis, including my place, has been shocking.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:08, closed)

over subscription
Our uni admin quite happily oversubscribed many courses last year, as a result a hefty fine for being naughty, the upshot, they axe a load of courses and the part time staff are told we're not needed.

But if you're off to Cambs for a phd then it can't be ours that you've been studying at
(bluehamster, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 13:21, closed)

yeah, we had that as well, although no course losses yet.
Cowards, the government and uni management, frankly. They were supposed to instigate the 25% cuts to non-STEM subjects but both groups bottled it and cut across the board.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:18, closed)

You
shouldnt feel bad about crossing picket lines. You're a student, even if a post-grad masters or similar. I doubt the staff held it against you or even criticised you - it's not like you're employed by the Uni.

Also, as other people say, I recommend you tell Cambs about this as much as possible. Regularly.
(where are you?!)
(tweebianmonkey Should be known as Widget, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:16, closed)

^I agree^
I had to finish my Masters in order to get a job in London and picket lines wouldn't have stopped me. Yeah showing solidarity is good and all that, but you have to think about your academic future and not let narrow minded people stop you. Plus you are a student!
(satanstolemyteddybear Mu hõljuk on angerjaid täis, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:31, closed)

Aha
I think I know which Uni you're talking about. I've been up recently to it (I will hopefully be starting there later this year as an Undergraduate). I've seen strike action posters around whilst attending the summer school, but what you say is students effectively being arseholes towards other students. Surely they are able to appreciate the amazing lack of logic here!

Incidentally, if you could perhaps give a cryptic clue as to which union is going to do the cuntish thing you mentioned, I'd be greatful to know so I don't join it and instead go to the other one!
(General_Manchego, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:25, closed)

If you're an undergrad
then you'll automatially become part of the NUS, who have nothing to do with this so don't worry too much about it! The unions I'm talking about are the ones that the lecturers and support staff belong to.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:34, closed)

I'm a member.
And I am not a dickhead.

Do they protect the students to the detriment of their own lives or do they protect their own lives to the detriment of the students?

People always will err on the side of selfish.

We've seen a lot of cuts. I think we might implement a 'if it's brown, flush it down' policy over the summer. We're doing this so we don't have to get rid of anybody. If I could choose a toilet full of wee over one person's job, I'd choose the toilet full of wee.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 14:54, closed)

Don't you think NUS ought to be involved? If you want to talk about self-serving cunts, get on to the careerist fucks sitting at the top of NUS, refusing to intervene when unis fuck over their students, not the staff using the only leverage they have to keep from losing their jobs.

Your beef is with management, not the unions. I'd suggest turning your ire on them in support of the staff; the strike action/action short of a strike will stop all the quicker the more students get on their lecturers' side and pressure the hell out of management.
(bolshevette, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:12, closed)

Could you be...
...at a certain south coast university that's not the one named after the city?
( notmyrealname, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 22:42, closed)

Correct.
Please don't tell me you're someone that I've just slated now.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 22:48, closed)

A particularly scary thing I am seeing in my line of work is the requests from several Universities looking to refit office/library interiors. Not cheap things to do either!
(swissheavy, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:42, closed)

The bad management is at government level.
Some morons decided that everyone should go to university.
You can blame Blair for this one.
Now let's have university education for those that can prove they're worth it (I don't include myself in that).
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 18:22, closed)

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.
I was hoping to come back to Blighty to start my own chemistry research group in the next couple of years. not sure the money's going to be there now, though. Marie Curie funding it is, then...
Good luck!
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Thu 17 Jun 2010, 14:22, closed)