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University of Sussex staff vote in favour of strike

3:00pm Thursday 4th March 2010 in News By Emily-Ann Elliott

University of Sussex staff have voted to strike over planned job cuts.

More than three-quarters of the 550 balloted University and College Union (UCU) members have voted for industrial action in protest against plans to cut 115 jobs.

Hundreds of staff could now walk out if the university senate decides to pursue action when they meet on Friday.

Details on the timing of the strike have not yet been decided.

Union leaders admit a walkout would cause “widespread disruption” to the university but hope the management will “reconsider” the plans.

A university spokesman said a decision on the proposal should be made when the university council meets on March 12.

Comments(10)

Uhta_Trufe says...
3:16pm Thu 4 Mar 10

You would think that after paying so much for their education, they wouldn't want to take time off work.

Lazy students.

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Andy R says...
3:34pm Thu 4 Mar 10

Uhta_Trufe wrote:
You would think that after paying so much for their education, they wouldn't want to take time off work. Lazy students.
Bit of a ****-up on the read-the-article-pro
perly front there.........

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scthetruth says...
6:30pm Thu 4 Mar 10

Typical employees on the government payroll! Kind of get too comfy in their jobs, then when the money runs out they can't stand the thought of being booted out. Live in the real world people - there are NO jobs for life any more. Stop using the pathetic strike action and do what everyone else has to do and move on.

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TheInsider says...
7:24pm Thu 4 Mar 10

Two friends of mine began university courses last year as mature students. One had run his own business for 15 years, the other was formerly an accountant.
They have both recently dropped out of the courses as they were appalled at the low quality of course content, teaching and fellow students. Both went to uni in the 1980s and returned to re-train for different professions.
They said they were astonished and saddened at the disintegration of university education.
Perhaps this recession will put focus on an 'industry' which has blagged its way along when money was plentiful.

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cheezburger says...
11:13pm Thu 4 Mar 10

In regards to The Insiders post - I was a mature student and i have to say i think education is wasted on the young. The majority of the students were around 18 - 19, and they weren't all bad. But at that age you dont take it seriously (im generalising i know). I tried really hard and wanted to learn, having not been interested in education when i left school, i just went straight into work. But many of my fellow uni students obviously didnt care. Education is so important, cant be stressed enough.

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TheInsider says...
11:39pm Thu 4 Mar 10

cheezburger....my friends would agree with you. They both said that 50 per cent of the students on their courses were teenagers who were not interested at all in being at uni and were there because that is what all teenagers now do. They said it was just an extension of 'school' and these students disrupted the lectures as if they were in the first year of a secondary education. They were astonished at this childish behaviour particularly when people are paying for lectures.
The have chosen to drop out as they were not getting value for money. Universities here are an industry. The time is coming where they will be made to offer contracts to paying students, with terms and conditions of service delivery levels as the students are 'customers' and they are already losing customers. Our higher education system has gone from national flag carrier to budget airline in less than five years.

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cheezburger says...
8:24am Fri 5 Mar 10

It certainly is an iundustry. Oxford Uni has lowered the number of domestic students they take in, favouring foreign students who pay much more. 8-15 k a year as opposed to 1- 1.5

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Nyberg says...
1:43pm Fri 5 Mar 10

The education 'industry' starts at school level, where over successive decades A Levels have been dumbed down so that everyone can get a pass.
Then these semi literate individuals all go to university whether they need to or not - just to feed the 'education industry' - leaving students, good and bad, with huge debts that many of them have no hope of ever paying off.
University education is NOT for everyone, and should never, ever have lost its elite status. If it still had its elite status it could have remained free.
So now all that happens is that the job market is awash with 'graduates' some of whom can't spell or add up, and the whole graduate system means very little - because everyone has got one.
It used to be difficult to get A Levels. It used to be even harder to get a degree. If anyone can get one, it just has to be dumbed down, and consequently doesn't have the cache it used to have.
Ask employers.
As regards this strike: I think people should realise that right now they are lucky to have a job.

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thucydides says...
4:18pm Fri 5 Mar 10

As I understand it the UCU union actually submitted a proposal that would involve the lecturing staff voluntarily reducing their wages in order to avoid redundancies - this was dismissed out of hand by the university fat cats, including the Vice Chancellor (salary up from £140k to £220k) and his newly appointed Heads of School (there's 12 of them at reputedly over £100k a piece) - there's not much difference between the university fat cats and those in parliament or the bankers, making those that do the work pay for their "administrative services".

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TheInsider says...
4:58pm Fri 5 Mar 10

Financing industry is about increasing capital spend and reducing operating spend including head count of employees, which is why offering to take 'pay cuts' are rarely accepted. The industry needs to show it has a low head count while still spending capital to attract investment. This is the same for almost every industry.

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