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Quick update on the USS pensions issue, and the current industrial action by the Universities and College Union (UCU) to protect our pensions:
At last week's meeting of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC), the employers have backed off from their plan to push the pension cuts through at this time. The assessment boycott continues, with participants refusing to set exams are mark papers, but it looks like our goal of bringing them back to the negotiating table may have succeeded. Tomorrow, the UCU's Higher Education Committee (HEC) will meet to discuss whether the boycott should be suspended whilst negotiations proceed.
So that is a partial success. However, there are many who think that the union's opening position on negotiating our pensions already gives too much away. It's possible. Thus, there is a call to maintain the industrial action.[*]
For my part, I don't know enough yet to decide on the UCU's opening position. However, the Provost of Imperial College set up a task force earlier in the month, with volunteers from the staff (mainly from the Mathematics Department) coming forward to do their own actuarial assessment of the situation. The final report should have been in last Friday; I am attempting to get a copy so that I can reach an informed conclusion.
Meanwhile, there is a decent summary article in The Guardian here.
There is also an article from the Times Higher Education magazine about Oxford University -- one of the 69 institutions that make up the Universities UK (UUK) group -- coming out against the cuts that UUK is proposing.
Elsewhere, the University of Cambridge has also spoken out against these cuts; privately, the Provost of Imperial College has said that Imperial is also opposed... but Imperial refuses to make a public statement, so I have difficulty taking this seriously. It's a shame, really, because Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial are the top three universities in the UK. If Imperial College would join with the other two, that really presents a strong statement and a united front amongst the employers for not making these draconian cuts.
[*] ETA: It would seem that the results from the Provost's task force are not going to be made public. Thus, I have added my name to the petition to the union leaders, urging them to continue the industrial action and to refrain from giving so much away in the starting position of negotiations.
I will also be at the rally outside the union headquarters tomorrow afternoon, coinciding with the meeting of the Higher Education Committee. Whilst I acknowledge that benefit cuts may be necessary, I am not willing to concede anything without direct evidence of the necessity. Opaque figures cited without explanation (or uncertainty) by biased parties does not come close to constituting such evidence.
At last week's meeting of the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC), the employers have backed off from their plan to push the pension cuts through at this time. The assessment boycott continues, with participants refusing to set exams are mark papers, but it looks like our goal of bringing them back to the negotiating table may have succeeded. Tomorrow, the UCU's Higher Education Committee (HEC) will meet to discuss whether the boycott should be suspended whilst negotiations proceed.
So that is a partial success. However, there are many who think that the union's opening position on negotiating our pensions already gives too much away. It's possible. Thus, there is a call to maintain the industrial action.[*]
For my part, I don't know enough yet to decide on the UCU's opening position. However, the Provost of Imperial College set up a task force earlier in the month, with volunteers from the staff (mainly from the Mathematics Department) coming forward to do their own actuarial assessment of the situation. The final report should have been in last Friday; I am attempting to get a copy so that I can reach an informed conclusion.
Meanwhile, there is a decent summary article in The Guardian here.
There is also an article from the Times Higher Education magazine about Oxford University -- one of the 69 institutions that make up the Universities UK (UUK) group -- coming out against the cuts that UUK is proposing.
Elsewhere, the University of Cambridge has also spoken out against these cuts; privately, the Provost of Imperial College has said that Imperial is also opposed... but Imperial refuses to make a public statement, so I have difficulty taking this seriously. It's a shame, really, because Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial are the top three universities in the UK. If Imperial College would join with the other two, that really presents a strong statement and a united front amongst the employers for not making these draconian cuts.
[*] ETA: It would seem that the results from the Provost's task force are not going to be made public. Thus, I have added my name to the petition to the union leaders, urging them to continue the industrial action and to refrain from giving so much away in the starting position of negotiations.
I will also be at the rally outside the union headquarters tomorrow afternoon, coinciding with the meeting of the Higher Education Committee. Whilst I acknowledge that benefit cuts may be necessary, I am not willing to concede anything without direct evidence of the necessity. Opaque figures cited without explanation (or uncertainty) by biased parties does not come close to constituting such evidence.
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