Strike Action!: Final Years Speak Out

Words by Sophie Revell and Rume Otuguor

Page Design by Haris Hussnain

(n.b.) This focus group was conducted in the second week of UCU’s industrial action and has been extracted for the purpose of clarity.

2.How much do you understand about why these strikes are going ahead?

A: I do get that it’s the economy and people aren’t being paid enough. I do support the strikes completely but I think a lot of the teachers - they’re all for the strikes and that’s great but it’s like you’ve got your degree and like I don’t and any help whatsoever would just be amazing.

1.What course do each of you study? How has the strike action impacted your learning?

A: English Literature, R: Masters in English Literature, S: Journalism and English Lit

A: So one of my modules is literature and science and obviously we’re not doing like quantum physics and stuff but we’re like reading about it and it’s …so out of my comfort zone and both of my lectures and seminars are on Thursdays so I don’t have any teaching for it until week 7. I know they’ve said that they take it into account when we do assessments but I feel like it’s not just about the assessment, it is actually about what you take away from it.

R: Personally, I’ve done a Masters because I feel like I’ve missed out so much in my undergrad. I completely missed second year, first year halfway through we went home because covid started, then third year was not normal – I had most of my lectures online, seminars were scrappy, there was strikes, I had strikes in first year, like every single year and now including my Masters. I’ve done a Masters to get back some of the education that I missed.

R: I sort of feel exactly the same like I completely support them and I understand like pay, working conditions, like their working a lot of hours, there’s a lot of expectation on them for what their doing and they’ve also been impacted by Covid in their own way but I think the thing for me is that if the trains are on strike, you don’t use the trains and you get you get your money back. There’s no sort of like ‘ok how many hours have you missed, here’s your compensation’ and it shouldn’t come from the lectures pockets, it should come from the uni.

3.Have any of you seen/joined or had any interaction with those on the picket lines striking?

If so, what were your experiences?

R: I walked through a picket line the other day, mostly because I forgot. I was going to the library…but took a leaflet, said hi to the lectures that I knew. I don’t know, I do support them but I’m also still gonna go use the library, I’m gonna still study for a bit because I’m gonna make up where I can.

4.How does the Covid experience compare/differ from the conditions you are experiencing now due to the strike action?

R: I feel like with Covid, there was just a general understanding that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was frustrating but it felt like the burden should fall on the government or the university institution to compensate. We knew lecturers couldn’t really do anymore. But now I think maybe everyone’s a bit fatigued by it because we had Covid and now this.

A: I think there are so many different factors for everyone and I think a huge part for a lot of people would be mental health. For me, my mental health was down the drain during those Covid years but now I’m better and I’m raring to go and it’s like - okay we’re not going anywhere. I think, not to have a sort of victim-mind complex but it’s like…again? Like I said, I have not had a normal school experience since year 12.

5.Has the experience of doing uni online during Covid given you the motivation to be selfsufficientwith your current workload or are you feeling more burnt out?

S: I definitely experienced in second year this feeling of being completely overwhelmed…by the normal experience of being busy with the societies…as well as then having to go to in-person things. I think it took a long time for me to be like ‘oh this is actually normal now’, then to come back to third year…and to be back to square one is so annoying.

6.What has the communication from your lectures and tutors been like?

R: I’d say sporadic would sum it up. Within lectures sometimes they’re like ‘ I am striking’. It’s very all over the place, like there’s no consistency… it’s very much down to the individual.

A: And also it’s like, yes I know you’re trying to make our lives difficult so that we then complain but it’s like… we’re already most likely going to complain anyway because we’re not getting taught anything. Like really? 48 hours before? I can’t plan my days, I can’t plan my week.

7.What do you think needs to be done, to improve the experiences of finalyear students?

A: The only thing that’s been getting me through is just looking forward and… a lot of uni has been me not looking just at the present…. and I feel like that’s the experience that needs to be improved on. I don’t know how and I don’t think it’s necessarily our job to figure out how entirely.

R: There’s like that student claim group…I’ve applied for it, I’ve got no hope in it just because when did we ever get recognised and compensation. It would be lovely but too little too late, I guess.

S: It’s so hard to kind of get that balance of being completely understanding but then also being like I need to also be selfish about it as well because this is my money and my education.