DIPARTIMENTO
On Wednesday 21 March, Professor John Foot kindly agreed to discuss with me the recent industrial action that has affected us all in the Department of Italian.
This is a contentious topic and the opinions expressed are personal, not those of the Department as a whole.
Professor Foot pointed out the recent strikes are absolutely unprecedented and far beyond anything that has happened before. The UCU normally has a very low profile, rarely having to call for strikes or action. In the past, there have only been half-day strikes or marking boycotts. It is an incredibly extraordinary moment that we have just experienced and may have to go through again if the negotiations do not resolve.
While pensions were the starting point for all of this, it has served as a sort of Pandora’s box which has revealed a number of other frustrations and difficulties that lecturers are experiencing. While lecturers can only ask the university to put pressure on Universities UK (UUK), the university pensions body, there are issues that lecturers themselves can ask the university about directly. The prevalent issues that affect staff, as well as students, include the question of physical spaces within the university, workload and accompanying stress that both parties experience and approach to mental health. The latter especially is, as a widespread social issue, a priority and an area that has been slowly improved upon. While student mental health efforts continue to grow, there is very little current support for staff. This important issue is also one that should consider staff and students together, their mental health being closely linked within the university. We think that mental health is an issue for everyone - students and staff alike.
There are also many other issues such as the reliance-on- fees system, marketing and the National Student Survey (NSS). The latter has a powerful effect on league tables, which leads to an intense focus on data despite the ad hoc nature of a survey completed after graduation. The importance of data seems to overtake the voices of staff and even students. This is further evident in the university’s treatment of marks and exams. The concept of university as an exam factory is a worrying one; in lieu of an institution that focuses on educating people, giving freedom for thought and critical ideas at that, there is often an obsession with assessment. Institutionalised education is a form of power that appears to be unavoidable with our current approach. There needs to be a move away from statistics-based education toward a far more person-based approach.
The question of teaching has also come to the fore with the industrial action. Professor Foot explained he would like to do his research but also to have much more space to enjoy teaching, to have more time to dedicate to actually having fun while teaching and giving space to it. Teaching can become very routine and just something to be ticked off, with little enjoyment. The SML Teach Out, a collection of lecturers discussing a number of topics relating to the state of Higher Education on 7 March 2018, was an amazing experience with a great atmosphere that was truly enjoyable and energising with a good amount of student interest.
The strikes have highlighted the need for lecturers to have a greater voice, to be able to actively contribute to how the university operates in lieu of the currently opaque and hierarchal approach which has led to such disconnect within the university structure. We also require a better sense of community amongst staff, as well as students; a continuation of the community felt during the industrial action. There is a whole mindset which needs to be changed, something that is still a long way off and a greater unknown than even that of the strikes and their possible resolution.
INTERVIEW WITH pROFESSOR JOHN FOOT
The Italian Department’s Professor of
Modern Italian History and Union Representative
BY: olivia brookhouse