Concrete 353

Page 1

22 September 2018 Issue 353

The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk

News:

More strikes ahead? Matt Nixon Deputy Editor

Criticisms put forward by striking university staff towards the controversial settlement made between the University and College Union (UCU) and Universities UK (UUK) in March, have been grounded by a Joint Expert Panel (JEP) who were tasked with reviewing the 2017 valuation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Many key issues have been pointed out by the Panel, primarily with a controversial deficit valuation which was a key factor for the industrial action of the last academic year, as it justified pension reforms to the USS which would have seen a typical lecturer lose up to £10,000 of their pension every year. UUK intended to change the Superannuation Scheme from a defined benefits scheme to what they called a “market-leading” defined contributions

scheme. This would have meant that the state of the market would impact the amount an employee receives when they retire. This led staff at 65 universities across the UK to strike, which was the biggest display of workers undertaking industrial action in the Higher Education sector’s history. It is estimated that over one million students were affected, and that at least 575,000 hours of teaching time were lost. In the most recent development, the Joint Expert Panel - put together by both the UCU and UUK - have published a report (released on Friday 13 September) which stated that the “framing and context” of questions asked to university employers as part of the consultation on the 2017 USS valuation produced “misleading results”.

Continued on page 3

pg 3

Features:

Dealing with the "red tape" If you look to the university world rankings, the UK dominates 40 percent of the top ten. It is therefore no surprise that we are the second biggest home of international students.

pg 11

Travel:

Thoroughly American Amelia

The queue for customs in Chicago takes two hours and my connecting flight has already left.

pg 21


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.