SAIL AWAY, PROFESSOR HOLMES. YOU WON’T BE MISSED.

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged 2008 crash, academic staff, amorality, banks, Barclays, Bentley, Bolton University, Brexit, Brexit divorce bill, capital, capital flight, capitalism, commentary, commitment, conflict of interest, corporate tax, corporations, corruption, emigration, EU referendum, fair pay, financial crash, Financial Times, George Holmes, government, higher education, HSBC, hubris, inequality, jeremy corbyn, jo johnson, Jose Mourinho, markets, narcissism, neoliberalism, pay equality, pay gap, pay rises, prime minister, regulation, role models, senior management, success, talent flight, tax, uk, universities, university staff, university vice chancellors, vice chancellor pay, wage gap, wealth.

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As the farce of university bosses’ salaries has finally entered mainstream debate this year, I’ve often found myself wishing that the kind of people who are comfortable taking pay rises six times larger than their average member of staff, and who don’t see a problem in sitting on the committees that decide their salary, would just piss off out of our universities altogether. So when I read the FT’s interview* with Bolton Uni VC Prof George Holmes the other day, I’ll admit I was a little surprised to read his proposal for a method of achieving just that.

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JO JOHNSON IS RIGHT FOR ONCE – SOUTHAMPTON UNI SHOULD BE ASHAMED

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academic staff, budget cuts, conflicts of interest, corruption, course closures, cuts, fair pay, government, HEFCE cuts, higher education, higher education cuts, inequality, jo johnson, pay cuts, pay gap, pay inequality, pay rises, pensions, senior management, Times Higher Education, Tories, universities, university closures, University of Southampton, university staff, university vice chancellors, vice chancellor pay, wage gap.

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Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I agree with Jo Johnson. A couple of weeks ago the Tory Universities Minister told university leaders and Vice Chancellors that they needed to “stop ratcheting up pay”. This was a reaction to the news that the VC at Southampton University has received a £125,000 pay rise in the space of 5 years.

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REVIVING CAMPUS ACTIVISM – A ROADMAP

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic culture, academics, access, accessible academia, accountability, alliances, Apartheid, austerity, awareness, awareness raising, British political history, Campaign for Lincoln Democracy, campaign strategy, campaigning, campus culture, co-operation, co-operative university, collective action, communication, Community, culture, curricula, curriculum reform, decision making, democracy, democratic higher education, depoliticised unions, direct action, diversity, economics, economics education, elections, employment rights, escalation, experts, GE17, government, grassroots, higher education, hubris, international organising, investigative journalism, Lincoln SU, Lincoln University, listicles, lobbying, local media, manchester, media, neoliberalism, occupation, organising, petitions, pluralism, politics, Post-Crash Economics Society, postgraduate tutors, Queen's University Belfast Students' Union, Queens' University Belfast, radical media, referendum, Rethinking Economics, senior management, Social Science Centre Lincoln, startup media, strategy, student activism, student democracy, student elections, student experience scores, student life, student media, student societies, students, students' unions, teaching, teaching staff, trade unions, uk, uk politics, universities, university staff, War of Words, Warwick Anti-Casualisation, Warwick University, workers, workers rights, working conditions, WOW 2016, young people, youth turnout.

by Bradley Allsop

We live in turbulent times. The political establishment has been rocked again and again this last year. The government is embattled in a way it hasn’t been for 7 years and that rarest of things in British politics, change, is peeking its head above the parapet. What’s more, for the first time in my lifetime, it seems my generation is willing to be an active participant in all this. June’s election saw the highest rise in youth turnout in British political history – it reached its highest absolute level since 1992. It falls to those of us already engaged to fan this flame and help it spread beyond the ballot box, building the political courage and competencies of our fellows. Nowhere offers a better opportunity for us to do this than on university campuses.

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