THE DOUBLE DECEPTION OF THE UEA EXPENSES SCANDAL

Posted on November 24, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged corruption, david richardson, expenses, expenses scandal, fair pay, featured, lecturers, norwich, pensions, strike action, students, tuition fees, UCU strike, UEA, university management, university vice chancellors, wages, Wood Hall.

By Robyn Banks

This week it was revealed that the senior management team at UEA has been claiming ludicrous expenses whilst on business trips across the world. Some of these claims have included limousine rides through Hong Kong, first class train and plane tickets, five star hotels and meals costing as much as £640. This attitude to spending university money is absurd and distasteful, but it is not surprising. It is a predictable result of the changes that UK higher education has undergone over the past eight years.

GRADE INFLATION, VESTED INTERESTS AND THE FAILURE OF MARKETISATION

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged competition, degrees, employment, featured, government, grade inflation, HESA, higher education, marketisation, media, Sam Gyimah, tef, Tories, tuition fees, universities, university vice chancellors, vested interests.

By Robyn Banks

Grade inflation is back in the headlines this week, with universities minister Sam Gyimah announcing that it will be incorporated into how universities are ranked under the Teaching Excellence Framework. There is statistical evidence to back up this policy change – according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the number of first class degrees being awarded has grown by 18% between 2012/13 and 2016/17. Whilst it is statistically true that grades are inflating at the university level, there are a number of issues with the current discourse around grade inflation that are not being properly addressed by HE decision makers.

BREAK UUK, WIN THE STRIKE – NATIONAL DEMO AT SUSSEX UNI

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academic staff, academics, Adam Tickell, Break UUK, Brighton, capitalism, democracy, demonstration, featured, higher education, industrial action, living wage, marketisation, mental health, negotiation, neoliberalism, pensions, picket lines, privatisation, protest, strike action, students, Sussex Supports the Strike, UCU, UCU strike, uk, University of Sussex, university staff, university vice chancellors, USS, UUK, wage cuts, workers rights.

By Max Savage and Ellen Musgrove

“…in the short term I would be happy to reconstruct a social democratic compromise which aimed to decrease inequalities…I recognise that this will not remove the gross injustices inherent within capitalist structures. To reiterate, capitalism is the enemy, but neoliberalism seems to me to be worse than social democracy. Perhaps we should set our sights a little lower than capitalism and attempt to slay the neoliberal beast.”

– Adam Tickell, ‘Reflections on “Activism and the Academy”’ (1995)

Professor Tickell, once apparently an advocate of radical social reorganisation, is now Sussex University Vice Chancellor and one of neoliberalism’s torchbearers in the UK higher education sector. While it is tempting to conclude from this transformation that Tickle is a duplicitous, cowardly and parasitic individual, there is in fact a larger point to be drawn: very often our politics are not forged by our own choosing but by our position. Once you are earning an obscene salary and have turned a blind eye to staff on your campus earning under the living wage, perhaps neoliberalism isn’t so beastly after all.

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.

by Rowan Gavin

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.

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.

by Robyn Banks

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.

university vice chancellors

THE DOUBLE DECEPTION OF THE UEA EXPENSES SCANDAL

GRADE INFLATION, VESTED INTERESTS AND THE FAILURE OF MARKETISATION

BREAK UUK, WIN THE STRIKE – NATIONAL DEMO AT SUSSEX UNI

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

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

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