Any parents of current UK students concerned about the possible strike? My kid is worried about missing labs in particular. Any feeling on what will happen and how many staff will participate?
I’m concerned about this, too. From the student newspapers, it looks like this strike is happening and that there will be actions (i.e., no class) on 9 school days. (I think I read that in The Saint online). So it seems a real possibility that all classes would not happen across the board on those dates?
I think the kids will just have to go ahead and ask the tutors what will happen for their lectures and tutorials for those dates. A recent article in The Guardian made it seem like a somewhat fluid situation nation-wide in terms of efforts to resolve the proposed action, so there may be variations across the UK in terms of how this plays out? I may e-mail the international office of the university for clarification, I was going to wait until after I spoke with my child this weekend and see what he knew.
I, too, would love ideas or thoughts from those who may be more informed.
My son said it was business as usual for him at Oxford today. Said one of his lecturers didn’t even know about the strike!
At. St. A my daughter had two tutorials today, both went on as normal as did her scheduled lecture. Her afternoon math lab (in the computer lab using Maple) typically has a demonstrator and a TA. The demonstrator was a no-show so the TA called a prof and they came in to help.
Seems to be rolling industrial action, St A’s strike beginning Monday next.
http://metro.co.uk/2018/02/22/universities-striking-dates-strikes-happening-7333195/
It started today. Many of her friends had tutorials cancelled and there were students and staff picketing.
It’s starting today and will roll out next week.
No idea how long it’ll last. I guess it’ll depend whether any other issues will attach themselves to it.
For discombobulated Americans: it’s a good cultural experience (not good as in positive, but good as in unique teachable moment). It won’t do any good getting upset or ketching - yes it wouldn’t happen in the US but you’re in the UK because you chose the UK, and it’s a unique opportunity to see something culturally interesting, so try and learn something from it. Ask classmates, join, go to discussions, read up about the Battle of Orgreave or watch about the 1979 Winter of Discontent (or the ‘electricity there days a week’ speech from the 70s) or read a darker domain by McDermid or go interview people in both sides…
As for exams etc, there will be accommodations. Talk to your tutors and professors, ask what’s in place and/or what you should do or can expect. Make it plain that, as incredible as it may sound to them, you haven’t encountered industrial action or anything like this before.
The movie Billy Elliot is a good introduction to the 1980s miners’ strike, although it isn’t the main focus of the story. And its a good movie!
My son was shocked when I explained to him that I had been a union member (both ends of the spectrum-United Steelworkers & The Newspaper Guild). And he had never seen a strike or picket line before. Nothing beat the union “rat patrol” in NYC though - the giant inflatable rat they bring to construction sites that use non-union labor.
We very nearly went on strike when I was a grad student TA at University of California. Our school district has had picketing by teachers but not a full blown strike. It is not entirely a foreign concept to us.
All WV K-12 public school teachers are on strike now.
Oxford S did say a prof wasn’t allowed to sign off on something due to the strike. S is doing research in Dublin right now so hasn’t been around campus to see what is going on. My other S also has a strike going on at his school by the TAs- the Graduate Student Organization. Apparently there were demonstrators all over campus.
Edinburgh started yesterday and it is not pretty. Almost all classes for my dd were cancelled. Some tutors informed students about cancellations, most did not. Students are urged to show up for all classes.
Considering that teaching for the semester ends on 4/6, I am concerned about exams. The possibility that exams will be cancelled is real.
@jupiter98 I’m sorry, that is hard. My daughter says many of her friends in humanities are adrift, with very little to do and unsure what is going to happen. Chemistry and math virtually unaffected, all (very few) absences have been covered by other staff.
I’m unsure why the difference. Do the sciences have other funding they rely on, or are scientists just fundamentally less activist?
@VickiSoCal i think the difference is in the number of union membership, not stem vs humanities. For example, Statistics is on, foreign language is half on, Philosophy is on, etc. I should have said “most classes for Monday and Tuesday were cancelled”, as other subjects will supposedly be on later in the week. But students are not required to attend (in solidarity?), while main uni site urges them to attend classes.
Read in the Cherwell over the weekend that the union agreed to a plan to study the pension issue and that the “industrial action” has ended.
Yes. D17 got an email from the administration.
Got the email, too. Strike was very disruptive for my DD’s course. There were almost no classes for 4 weeks. Strike also followed a week-long break, so half of the second semester is gone. Sounds like both faculty and students were upset about such long disruption.
Overall I think D17 missed 3 lectures and one tutorial, but her roommate in English was severely impacted. Unfortunate that they could not have settled much sooner. This is the last week of lectures in most classes at St. Andrews but a few makeup labs and lectures next week due to snow day and strikes will be held.