we don’t have any of those and are not allowed to use them. We have Visiting Lecturers but they always get a real (specified hours) fixed term contract.
That’s the spirit! There is nothing wrong with being easy, but one must draw the line at being cheap.
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Depends on whether you want to experience the full yellow or not @Kevin.
All joking aside, since security of tenure went out the window there is a very serious increase in the number of sessional staff used across the tertiary sector in the UK. Some of these folk must be making a pretty thin living. I would be unsuprised if they have to resort to prostitution, or working for Poundland because the rates of pay aren’t great and there is little or no work from May-September.
Very depressing really.
I was wondering how he knew what she would be talking about but of course he’s psychic so he would know.
He might also know that not too many people will turn up.
I wonder if he has the Euro Millions numbers for tomorrow? Should drop him an email really. If he gets those right I’ll promise to attend.
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Is this the package Trump would pay for?
He hasn’t asked. I’m not sure we would accommodate the likes of him though. We do have some standards, minimal though they are. I think he would qualify as a five-bagger, so we would say no.
Where is all the money going, the Universities appear to be rinsing students a treat. Someone, somewhere is making a tidy packet, no?
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Not really. Firstly, central funding from Government has been cut repeatedly since the good old days of Mrs T. Secondly, there was very little investment in physical infrastructure for a goodly period of time, partly due to cuts, but mainly due to incompetence. Thirdly, there is a massive shortfall on the University pension, partly due to incompetence, but mainly due to 2008 and the subsequent collapse in yields over the last decade (yawn). Many institutions are running up reserves, but still need to replace buildings that are well past the end of their useful lives. Finally, as a sector we have criminally underfunded the IT infrastructure needed to both administer the average University, let alone deliver education and research satisfactorily. E.g. it is not uncommon for older lecturing spaces to have no wifi.
Makes me very sad, but it does incentivise you to put that extra effort in to make sure the students are getting the maximum out of what you do.
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I must admit the first thing I saw as an “outsider” was the huge increase in on campus accommodation blocks. I assume this means the universities can get a “slice” of the student rental market. These blocks shot up quicker than a smack starved addict.
I guess every Uni charges the full fee and no one is seeking to create a market based on price, apart from the Government, A defacto cartel or just explained away equally by all as the result of previous underfunding? The latter would seem to be the case, although I dont know how an Ivy league compares to an ex Poly in this respect.
looks like his command wasn’t the only thing relieved!
Up periscope?
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The real price competition is for PG study. There you basically have no caps on the numbers you and take and the majority of the students are from overseas. That market is vast and attracts no real press coverage.
In most of the Unis I am aware of the new accommodation is largely being built to attract these students who tend to turn their noses up at traditional halls (excepting colleges at Oxbridge). An ensuite study bedroom with wifi is now the minimum. The increase in the quality of private rentals (ensuite, broadband, Sky etc for 100 p.w. including bills in the centre of town near pubs and clubs) meant that the asbestos filled flytraps in the arse end of nowhere that represented the Halls I lived in as a student were no longer fit for purpose.
Did he sink her with his pink torpedo?
yep - I agree we’ve spent close on £200m in the last 5 years on new accommodation and other buildings We have renewed all our accommodation now and we are 100% ensuite. Our latest build was a new science labs block for £50m. We are in the middle of a major £25m refurb of 1950s buildings which cannot be demolished.
Just means that somebody was creaming it off then. Academia is as corrupt as any big “industry”.
Look at chancellor, vice-chancellor salaries in recent years, for instance.
Nice trolling. Let me explain why that post makes you look ill-informed
The easy attack would be to point out that the chancellor is an honorary position in most institutions and attracts very little, if any, salary.
Vice-Chancellor salaries have exploded, but then so have the salaries of many academics. A front line academic in many of the shortage disciplines will be on £120-170K and probably tops that up with consultancies. If you don’t pay then the successful academics simply go to America or Australia or wherever offers the highest wages/best research environment. It is very difficult to find really good experienced academics who are willing to come to the UK, or more, at the official scales. Retaining them is an absolute nightmare.
As for the corruption this, that is just a load of crap put out to mask the underfunding of the sector (see also the NHS, social care or the prisons for other examples of this kind of thing). The mooted cap on fees from the Govt comes with no promise of additional funding for the sector (in fact there are cuts on the way) so the University sector either has to get entrepreneurial (monetise research and/or attract other sources of funding). To be honest we are falling behind the world and our elite institutions are either self-funding or running to stand still.
Don’t believe the crap published by Murdoch or Dacre or spin from the Govt. The University system (excepting Oxbridge and one or two others) runs on the smell of an oily rag and staff goodwill.
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Were they Prefabs?