rhifyn 1137 issue 1137
gair rhydd
8 ebrill 2019 8 april 2019
Check out Gair Rhydd online
Cardiff University’s student paper | Established 1972
University saves almost £1m from strikes
£32m plan to reduce air pollution by Suzannah Murphy
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ollowing the decision against implementing a ‘Clean Air Zone’, Cardiff Council has instead decided on various alternative measures, costing £32 million, to reduce air pollution in the centre. Whether this project goes ahead is dependent on whether the Welsh Government approves funding. 4
Gair Rhydd meets Kirsty Williams by Lowri Pitcher
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Strike Action: A banner for last year’s Cardiff University strikes, which saved them almost £1m. Source: Rimante Bivainyte. by Matt Tomlin policy regarding the strike action or ent academic schools. not all details of the savings have been
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n the Spring semester of 2018, staff from Cardiff University, as well as those from over 60 other universities in the UK, partook in strike action. This was in response to pension cuts being proposed by universities; a means of reducing long-term expenditure for the purpose of solving their financial deficits. The strike action occurred over a period of four weeks, beginning on Thursday 22nd February, following an 88% strike ballot vote in favour of striking by University and College Union (UCU) members. Lecturers were not paid for time striking, and Cardiff University has confirmed in their response to a Freedom of Information request conducted by Gair Rhydd that £909,341 was saved from this and was redistributed across student education budgets. One year on, much of the student body, including sabbatical officers and Student Senate, have been unaware of this figure and to what extent anything may change with regards to what redistributed funds will go towards. This includes whether or not money saved could go towards refunding tuition fees. The Head of Student Senate and upcoming VP Postgraduate, Nick Fox, told us: “Currently we have no active
returning of fees for lost teaching time”. However, Fox did mention that there was potential for upcoming debates to be had on the subject by saying: “Any student can submit policy ideas through the upvote/downvote system at cardiffstudents.com/ideas for Student Senate to consider - Student Senate can only debate policy ideas that reach 50 engagement votes (positive or negative) submitted this way.” Furthermore, one of two student representatives interviewed by Gair Rhydd about this revelation admitted they had heard nothing of this situation in Student rep meetings or student-teacher panels throughout the past year. Wanting to remain anonymous, a second-year student rep for the School of Journalism, Media and Culture explained “Up until now no student has brought this issue up so we haven’t discussed it in any meeting.” This general lack of awareness is also combined with a lack of clarification from the University as to which academic schools would have had the most redistributed back into their education budgets. The University only provided an overarching figure and has not yet broken it down into differ-
However, enthusiasm for redistributing this money across education budgets is present among those who are aware, or have been made aware by our enquiries, of this redistribution of funds. Esther Llwyd, a third-year student representative for the School of Welsh has told Gair Rhydd that “Although it is very difficult to pin point exactly where and how this money has been redistributed between schools, I personally feel that this has certainly been the case and that students have benefited from the money the University saved due to striking. “This money has allowed the School of Welsh to organise numerous events outside of lecture hours, all of which have contributed to ensuring that students get the best out of their university experience.” Nick Fox referred to the situation in a similar way. Giving his current opinion on what should happen with this saved money, he commented “Personally I think any savings should be reinvested back into the student experience and I think it again raises the interesting debate about the current marketisation of the Higher Education system and the extent that students should be treated as consumers.” But, he did go on to say he could not give a fulll opinion on the subject as
made to known to him. VP Postgraduate Jake Smith also spoke to Gair Rhydd, saying that the debate on this issue needed to be expanded. He surmised about the current situation: “There is an interesting debate happening across the higher education sector as to how financial savings from strikes should be used.” He explained that University leaders needing to listen more to staff and students in any future case of strike action. There has been no discussion from the University about whether there is potential for Cardiff University students to be refunded for contact time lost during the period of strike action. Over 126,000 students had signed petitions demanding refunds from UK universities for contact time lost during the UCU strike period last year. For some though, it is not seen as a necessary course of action now that the money saved from the strikes has gone back into education. For example, the third-year Welsh student rep concluded from her experience of increased school funding that she does not “feel that refunding students would have been at all necessary.”
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ur politcs section has talked to Kirsty Williams, AM for Brecon and Radnorshire is currently the Welsh Minister for Education and Skills. She was elected as an AM in 1999 and served as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2008 until 2016; now, she is the only serving Liberal Democrat AM and forms part of the coalition between Welsh Labour, the Liberal Democrats and an Independent AM. 18
Cyfweliad Meri Huws: CynGomisiynydd y Gymraeg gan Jacob Morris
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n ddiweddar, daeth diwedd cyfnod yn hanes yr iaith Gymraeg wrth i Meri Huws gamu o’r neilltu fel Comisiynydd y Gymraeg. Jacob Morris aeth i’w chyfweld ar ran Taf-od ar ei diwrnod olaf yn y swydd. 10
A cashless society? by Matt Tomlin
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n the UK, there has been talk that the finance sector could phase in a cashless society, with the government potentially rendered unable to resist should it not intervene soon. Could it work? 14