There is nothing like a bit of class war at Christmas and the Times has printed an Editorial attacking the decision of the UCU to hold an industrial action ballot on pay in early 2025.
The outcome of the ballot will be decided not by the Editor of the Times but democratically by UCU members and the existing Tory laws on turn-out and success threshold will apply (it will be a good while before Labour’s Employment Bill reaches the statute book).
All of this is quite usual for the Times but the detail on higher education is of interest, simply for its ignorance. A good word is had for Vice Chancellors who if they were described as well paid might suggest a considerable degree of under statement.
Meanwhile University lecturers and staff are often poorly paid on precarious contracts.
Of course there is an element of anti-intellectualism about the idea of education, certainly promoted by the likes of Farage who went to a public school but did not do a degree getting his education such as it is from City of London wine bars.
Yet the reality is that the University employees who will determine whether to take action on pay are those who imparting and promoting skills of mainly young people across the economy and wider society. Without those skills economic growth is harder and social cohesion is damaged.
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