Low Wages at High Table

By Mary Morgan

University staff around the country will hold a national week of action from Monday, in protest at pay proposals that will see their earnings fall dramatically.

AUT, the Higher Education Union, has voted to oppose the proposed reforms, and the 659 Oxford AUT members will strike on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Terry Hoad, a Fellow of St Peter's College and Honorary Secretary of the Oxford branch, told The OxStu that plans for the protest have yet to be finalised. He said that although there are unlikely to be any actual picket lines in the University, the strikers will "hope to have some form of visible action on one or both days," and are encouraging students to support them in this.

Speaking to The OxStu, Helena Puig Larrauri, OUSU President, said: "OUSU understands that AUT members want to express their concerns about pay by striking next week." She has written a letter to the University encouraging them to rearrange lectures, which it has as yet declined to do. The NUS has endorsed the actions of the AUT, and student unions around the country will be working together with local AUT members during the week.

The earnings of staff in higher education have already fallen significantly in recent years compared to those of other workers. The starting salary of an Oxford University lecturer is around £22,191, which seems small, given the years of study and financial investment behind them.

However, whilst the pay of ordinary researchers, lecturers and professors in British universities has fallen in real terms, the pay of vice-chancellors has continued to rise. The top-earning vice-chancellorship is that at the London Business School, where Laura Tyson earns a salary of £316,000, which has increased by 157 per cent since 1994.

The concept of the 'brain drain', with British academics being increasingly drawn to foreign universities by attractive pay packages and facilities, has long been a cause for concern amongst British universities. Already 1,500 academics are leaving for institutions in Europe and the US every year, and the AUT fear that this may increase to over 2,000 as a result of the new pay structure.

£32,000p.a. London Tube Driver

£43,656p.a. Waste Disposal Manager

£125,253p.a. Vice Chancellor, Oxford

£29,336p.a. University Lecturer

40% fall In higher education wages over last 20yrs*

£17,000 Planned decrease in researchers pay

1,500 Academics moving to the US and Europe every year

47.5% ... more earned by a US professor than his/her UK counterpart

*relative to the rest of the workforce. (Statistics provided by workthing.com, AUT press release, University Press Office)

19th Feb 2004