Listen up: Your schools told us exactly what they think of the strikes

We’re all well aware of the strikes parading around our main building on campus and we know exactly what our fellow students have to say about it, but what do our lecturers and schools really think about it?

ENCAP

When talking to an ENCAP lecturer, we were surprised to find out that you don’t have to be part of the union to strike. Apparently, non-union members still think it’s important to strike and to support their fellow colleagues.

Let’s be honest, if any of the schools were going to be this supportive and compassionate, it was obviously going to be ENCAP.

Psychology

You couldn’t miss the striking psychology lecturers, with a bustle of chanting and music filling up Park Place.

The strikers told us that “the pension dispute isn’t resolved and we want our Vice-Chancellor to be more proactive and bring things to a successful resolution”. If there’s anything that the strikes have taught us, it’s the fact the VC is the only one who can fix this issue.

They explained that “ultimately our working conditions are your learning conditions, so it’s in all our interests.”

One striker went on to say that “effectively the staff-student ratio is deteriorating” and “students are taught by lecturers who fill in claim sheets where they are paid by the hour. That’s not what teaching and scholarship are about.”

Is there anything better than a striking lecturer being enthusiastic and chanting all day long? Probably not.

SHARE

SHARE went deep and personal on their response, saying “if we’re not striking now then your generation will have no working rights whatsoever”.

“If they’re trying to do this with academics and people who work in universities, what are they doing to people who work in the private sector, what will they be doing to them in ten to twenty years? What kind of pensions will you have? What kind of working rights will you have?”

Well, you’d hope that paying the hefty £9k fee would stop this kind of situation happening to us, but better luck next time.

SHARE also touched on the zero-hour contracts dispute, saying “the number of staff on temporary contracts, on fraction contracts, get paid £10-13,000 for teaching you”.

One lecturer even @’d our tuition fee, saying “it’s kind of an odd thing, because you guys are paying more tuition fees than ever in UK higher education, and we’ve never been under more pressure to take in more students”.

JOMEC

Believe it or not, it’s not just your lecturer that striking but the PhD tutors are also in support of the disputes.

A JOMEC PhD tutor told The Cardiff Tab:

“I would quite like to have a job in academia in the future […] it’s pretty rubbish right now, the prospect of getting a full-time job is quite low, the prospect of getting a job to support a family is quite low.

“I really enjoy teaching but primary and secondary teaching is terrible right now, and I thought tertiary would be better, but I was wrong”.

The JOMEC lecturers were vocal on how they have no time to answer student queries either, saying: “When I was an undergraduate, I used to knock on my tutor’s door and tell them I didn’t understand something – that’s just a ridiculous thought now”.

The PhD tutor continued “it isn’t fair, if you’re in a lecture hall full of a hundred people and you don’t understand, who are you going to ask for help? Paying £9,000, you deserve to have one-to-one time”.

And let’s be real, the dissertation is stressful enough so third-years need a little support, right?

Generally, all of the lecturers were quite passionate about striking for future generations and are just looking out for us students.

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The best and most sarcastic signs of the UCU strikes in Cardiff

‘We’re just helpless victims’: We asked Cardiff students about the strikes

Cardiff students return for second protest outside meeting in the Main Building