This week University staff are on strike across the UK. I talked to Professor Dominic Bryan from Queen’s University Belfast about the reasons for the University Strike Action. We also talk about the increasing commercialisation of education.
The two main issues are:
Pensions: this is the usual story of being asked to contribute more to their pension scheme but getting less out of it when they retire.
Pay: they are looking a 12% pay rise. When you consider that inflation is running at 10% this is only a 2% increase in real terms.
We also talk about the increasing commercialisation of Universities where students have become customers, and Universities compete against each other with ever more expensive facilities which ultimately will need paid for increased fees or more full fee paying international students.
Even if education is not your bag, give it a try. Dominic is an engaging speaker so it’s an easy but informative listen.
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I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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