The Business University in the 2020s. Why the UCU is right to strikeFollowing a decisive vote for industrial action members of the UCU in Universities are currently taking three days of strike action on pay, pensions and working conditions. While the pay of Vice Chancellors has soared into the hundreds of thousands, many academics are on fixed term contracts and facing real time pay cuts
Unlike in the late 1960s when Universities mainly relied on State funding in the 2020s every University is a business. Members of the UCU, the union that organises in further and higher education understand the point very well.
The influence of business in UK Universities is significant and it’s not interested in rooting out incorrect thinking. If a subject is not contributing in a measurable way to the bottom line funding stops and so does the study of the subject. There is no space for thinking correct, or incorrect.
As in 1970, when E P Thompson edited , Warwick University Ltd, the original business University when it comes to the business University the main enemy is at home.
Capitalism is however nothing if not contradictory. The Government having encouraged overseas students to study in the UK, which is profitable for Universities, now seems to be debating whether this should be restricted to elite Russell Group institutions. There is some complexity in this in terms of what the agenda of capital actually is, although racism remains a core feature.
A key, if not the key way, through all this is for the organised strength of the UCU to shift the agenda away from profit and towards decent pay and conditions for academics and really useful education for students.
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