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Yesterday, at #ucustrike we were talking a little bit about the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, which can offer compensation to students if their university has not adequately mitigated the effect of our strike.
It seems, from their published case studies, that the Office will offer a “notional” figure of 50% of the cost of missed teaching hours. The other 50% represents overheads, the costs of student services (the ones unis keep cutting) etc etc
Compensation is usually in the order of a few £100, including extra money for distress, inconvenience etc, especially if the university has taken steps to mitigate the effects of strike (usually these are a bit grim from a pedagogical point of view but let’s move on).
First years usually receive lower payments than final years or students on 1 year MAs.
There is something kind of valuable in the Adjudicator’s approach in that it recognises that an hour of missed teaching with us can’t be replaced as such.
But there is also something valuable in noting how small the payments are. Let’s say I have a class of 50 final year students, who have each missed 4 hours with me because of this strike.
The Adjudicator might feel that this number of missed classes is so small in the scheme of things that it isn’t worth compensating. In any event, going by its awards, the amount per student would be very small, and most won’t feel the need to apply.
If universities deduct 25% salary p.d. rolling, rising to 100%, (in addition to the original strike deduction) for refusal to replace/restore/recover that teaching, it quickly spirals out of proportion to any compensation liable to actually be paid.
It also treats precarious seminar tutors very unfairly by comparison with the likes of me, since the Adjudicator doesn’t treat each hour of teaching as equivalent to each other hour.
It’s also spreading the risk of compensation associated with enormous undergraduate classes.
I’m not saying we should only view strike deductions through the bizarre regulatory framework in which we find ourselves.
What I am saying is, threats to force you to make up teaching for which you haven’t been paid, or to soften the edges of the strike, are just that - threats. Push back.
