A union for tomorrow not yesterday

Times Higher Education Supplement, 18 January 2007

 

There are lots of political parties and no doubt UCU members who participate in pretty much all of them. However there is only one UCU and we should concentrate on being the "voice of the profession" and not seek to mimic parties or position ourselves on the political fringes.

"The new union must increase our lobbying presence in support of this core mission. As AUT/UCU general secretary, I learnt that to influence policy makers our message must be focused and that we do best when we are united.

"Good example? Fighting with one voice the attacks on academic freedom within the 2005 Terrorism Bill. Bad example? Hopeless division over an academic boycott of Israel.

"Our employment concerns are well rehearsed - low pay and status, lack of time to do research, increasing administration and insecure employment. But these must be framed in a wider professional context of encroachments on academic freedom, reductions in practitioner control over the curriculum and of governance that champions corporate not collegiate values.

"Here are four ways that I will bring workplace and professional issues together in HE.First, by linking excessive workload to quality and the defence of academic values. UCU should recommend maximum student/staff ratios (SSRs) across subject areas and make the case that higher SSRs can reduce the quality of students' education as well as increasing members' workload.

"Second we should campaign for every academic to have the right to at least some self-directed research time; this combined with limits on administrative and teaching workload would enhance quality and restore academics' autonomy.

"Third, UCU should put direct pressure on funding bodies to make research grants conditional on providing decent pay, conditions and job security. This would provide a major impetus to the erosion of fixed term contracts, and again enhance quality.

"Fourth, UCU should stand up for academic freedom; the right to publish freely, to criticise, to engage with civil society. Governments are careless of these freedoms. UCU must not be and as the largest tertiary education union in the world our role is to defend academic freedom wherever it is under attack.

"Underpinning my approach is the need for a restatement of the relationships between universities on the one hand and the state and the free market on the other. Government pays proportionately less now to support universities yet is directing us more; intervening on curricula; quality; inspection; governance; and academic freedom. At the same time universities are increasingly aping private corporations. UCU must resist privatisation, "for profit" universities and attempts to beat down academic values through "so called corporate" governance.

"I am proud of being UCU general secretary, prouder still of my six year old daughter. As both general secretary and parent one always looks to the future. What will it mean to study and work in a university by the time she is old enough to go? Will academic values and freedoms flourish? Will it still be knowledge rather than wealth generation that drives our institutions?

"UCU and its members must use our new strength effectively to stand up for the profession and for our future. How? My vision is clear - an independent union focused on tomorrow, not yesterday.