Universities accused of 'importing Sports Direct model' for lecturers' pay

Kelfuma · Nov 17, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/16/universities-accused-of-importing-sports-direct-model-for-lecturers-pay

One of the most highly skilled and prestigious professions in Britain, university teaching, is now dominated by zero-hours contracts, temp agencies and other forms of precarious work, the Guardian can reveal.

New analysis reveals that it is the richest Russell Group institutions that rely most heavily on insecure academic workers. The Guardian investigation has led trade unionists to accuse vice-chancellors of “importing the Sports Direct model” into British universities. It has also prompted the National Union of Students to warn that low-paid and overstressed tutors may not be providing quality education to undergraduates paying tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year.

Academics teaching or doing research in British universities will typically have spent years earning doctorates or other qualifications, yet more than half of them – 53% – manage on some form of insecure, non-permanent contract. They range from short-term contracts that typically elapse within nine months, to those paid by the hour to give classes or mark essays and exams.

Soon, we shall see the downfall of higher education!! This is most excellent.

Quag · Nov 17, 2016

Kelfuma said:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/16/universities-accused-of-importing-sports-direct-model-for-lecturers-pay

Soon, we shall see the downfall of higher education!! This is most excellent.

Why would you ocnsider the downfall of higher education a good thing?

Kelfuma · Nov 17, 2016

Quag said:
Why would you ocnsider the downfall of higher education a good thing?

Very good question... Personal feud and higher education is a means of population control especially of the "intellectually gifted" gene pools.

joG · Nov 17, 2016

Kelfuma said:
Very good question... Personal feud and higher education is a means of population control especially of the "intellectually gifted" gene pools.

I think you might want to be a little more specific.

longview · Nov 17, 2016

Kelfuma said:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/16/universities-accused-of-importing-sports-direct-model-for-lecturers-pay

Soon, we shall see the downfall of higher education!! This is most excellent.

I think maybe you misunderstand the economics of higher education, (at least the state funded variety)
States fund universities, because better educated people, tend to earn more and pay more taxes.
This is usually based on some sort of funding model based on the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) credit hours taught.
Degrees that have higher salaries, get funded at higher rates.
Now let's add in the Professor vs the adjunct instructor.
The Professor get paid a 9 month salary, to teach roughly 6 classes a year, but is also expected to do research.
When the professor is successful at research and wins a grant, the grant buys course release time
from their class schedule for them to fulfill the requirements of the grant.
The University hires a adjunct instructor to fill the professors slot.
If the professors salary is $90K, each class release is $15,000, but the University only pays the adjunct instructor,
about $3,000 to teach the class.

Quag · Nov 17, 2016

Kelfuma said:
Very good question... Personal feud and higher education is a means of population control especially of the "intellectually gifted" gene pools.

So you want your doctors and engineers to only have high school education?

legalimmigrant · Nov 17, 2016

Quag said:
So you want your doctors and engineers to only have high school education?

There is a difference between education and training. Education makes you a good material for a receptionist or a telemarketer.

Training gives you skills to be an engineer or a doctor, or to make things others need.

I just made it up, but it sounds good to me.

Quag · Nov 17, 2016

legalimmigrant said:
There is a difference between education and training. Education makes you a good material for a receptionist or a telemarketer.

Training gives you skills to be an engineer or a doctor, or to make things others need.

I just made it up, but it sounds good to me.

You dont go to university to become a telemarketer.

legalimmigrant · Nov 17, 2016

Quag said:
You dont go to university to become a telemarketer.

No. Many who go to universities become telemarketers. Some even get to be servers.

Or Planned Parenthood receptionists.

The best way to get these prestigious jobs is to go for Women Studies or African-American Studies.

What's really cool about those two fields is that you can bull**** your way through by saying PC crap and doing field work.

Like rioting against something. With extra credits if it is against whitey or, better yet, against Trump.

Quag · Nov 17, 2016

legalimmigrant said:
No. Many who go to universities become telemarketers. Some even get to be servers.

Or Planned Parenthood receptionists.

The best way to get these prestigious jobs is to go for Women Studies or African-American Studies.

What's really cool about those two fields is that you can bull**** your way through by saying PC crap and doing field work.

Like rioting against something. With extra credits if it is against whitey or, better yet, against Trump.

Right so you dont got to university to become a telemarketer.
Now what does any of that have to do with getting a higher education to become a doctor or an engineer?
And why is getting a higher education a bad thing?

Kelfuma · Nov 17, 2016

Quag said:
Right so you dont got to university to become a telemarketer.
Now what does any of that have to do with getting a higher education to become a doctor or an engineer?
And why is getting a higher education a bad thing?

It feeds the military-industrial-scientific complex. Look at student loans and debt. Your life has been set for you once you step out of graduation. And does everyone even want that? The American Dream is a golden chain.

legalimmigrant · Nov 17, 2016

Quag said:
Right so you dont got to university to become a telemarketer.
Now what does any of that have to do with getting a higher education to become a doctor or an engineer?
And why is getting a higher education a bad thing?

Some get higher education to earn a better living. That's a good thing.

When a young idiot borrows 100 gees to improve the world and than lives in his parents' basement, unable to find a job because she decided to spend said 100 gees on African studies, that's a bad thing.

Quag · Nov 18, 2016

Kelfuma said:
It feeds the military-industrial-scientific complex. Look at student loans and debt. Your life has been set for you once you step out of graduation. And does everyone even want that? The American Dream is a golden chain.

So better to have hoigh schoole dtrained doctors and engineers because you dont liek the way the govt works?

Quag · Nov 18, 2016

legalimmigrant said:
Some get higher education to earn a better living. That's a good thing.

When a young idiot borrows 100 gees to improve the world and than lives in his parents' basement, unable to find a job because she decided to spend said 100 gees on African studies, that's a bad thing.

What is your solution?
Remove personal choice in deciding what peopel can study?
Limiting what universisties teach?
Other?

Kelfuma · Nov 18, 2016

Quag said:
So better to have hoigh schoole dtrained doctors and engineers because you dont liek the way the govt works?

I don't care either way. They're not important.

Quag · Nov 18, 2016

Kelfuma said:
I don't care either way. They're not important.

What dont you care about?

You dont think it is important for a doctor or an engineeer to know what they are doing?