A Northumbria University student gives their perspective on the fight for pay and pensions justice.
The most obvious impact on students arises when decisions that demoralise staff are made. Such decisions inevitably have a material and noticeable effect on the learning environment and therefore on student experience. When decisions seem to stem from poor consultation practices, and leave staff feeling unheard, disrespected, and eroded of morale and enthusiasm for their roles the institution - and ultimately students - suffer. An atmosphere in which staff feel undervalued and disengaged cannot serve the best interests of students.
The prospect of Northumbria leaving national bargaining creates a worrying prospect of a two-tiered system of education. If Northumbria, and potentially other institutions, are able to dictate poorer working conditions over pensions, pay and workloads relative to the sector “standard” this will necessarily prove a less attractive offer to field-leading researchers and teachers, and potentially make the recruitment of such experts more difficult in the future. At institutions like Northumbria, which pride themselves on being at the forefront of innovative research-led teaching, this is a worrying prospect for undergraduates, PGT and PGR students.
Personally, as a PGR student, I find it very disheartening and disappointing to consider the precedent that Northumbria’s proposals could set. I have spent the majority of my twenties investing in my education through undergraduate and postgraduate study in order to pursue a career in higher education and research. Unlike many of my peers in other sectors, I have therefore not been able to make pension contributions through workplace schemes during this time. While I accepted this as part of undertaking postgraduate research, I did so with the understanding that, upon securing a permanent position in what is already a highly precarious job market, there would at least be a meaningful and worthwhile pension attached to that role. The suggestion that Northumbria is now proposing to diminish that prospect is therefore deeply concerning and makes a career in the sector feel significantly less viable and attractive.
