Palatinate Officially the UK’s Best Student Publication, 2018
Wednesday 3rd October 2018 | No. 808
With freshers’ week in full swing, Features take an in-depth look at friendship at university
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Profile speak to Durham alumnus Nish Kumar about the inspiration for his comedy, “spicy” Brexit and Klute
Over half of Durham academics on insecure contracts Anna Tatham News Editor
▲ Thousands of freshers arrived in Durham on Sunday for the beginning of the 2018/19 academic year (Maddie Flisher)
Durham fourth worst university for social inclusion despite improvement • Durham University ranked 130th out of 133 institutions in The Sunday Times’ social inclusion rankings • Just 6.4% of students are from the UK’s most deprived areas, whereas 37.1% attended private schools Clara Gaspar News Editor Durham is the fourth worst University for social inclusion in the UK, new statistics have revealed. In a comprehensive study produced by The Sunday Times’ Good University Guide, which measures participation by underrepresented groups at British universities, Durham is ranked 130th out of 133 institutions. Oxford University was shown to be the least socially inclusive, and is followed by St Andrews, Cambridge, Durham and Bristol. Last year, Durham had the sixth lowest state school intake in the UK,
at 62.9% percent in 2016/17, and 60.5% in 2015/16. The national average of state school entrants to UK universities in 2016/17 was 90%. Further breakdown of results showed that, as of the academic year 2016/2017, only 46.4% of students came from non-grammar state schools. In response to the findings, Labour MP David Lammy stated that the results provided “evidence that Britain’s finest universities remain gated communities for the privileged”. However, despite these statistics, Durham University’s 2018 intake contains its highest-ever
number of state-educated students. In a message to staff Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge, said: “Huge kudos to everybody that worked on this… For the first time in Durham’s history, 65% of our incoming undergraduates this year are from state schools”. He added: “we’ve exceeded our targets for students coming to us from Acorn 45 or low-participation neighbourhood backgrounds.” Figures released earlier this year by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), showed that Durham has seen progression in its social mobility. The percentage of young fulltime first degree students from
low participation neighbourhoods at the University increased from 5.1% in 2015/16 to 5.2% in 2016/17, while the number of mature degree students from low participation neighbourhoods almost doubled, from 9.2% in 2015/16 to 18% in 2016/17. Latika Rodway-Anand, a fourth-year student at St Aidan’s College, expressed concerns about social inclusion at Durham. “I remember feeling in first year as if everyone already knew each other, because, so many people did, because they went to the same school, their school rowed with this school... Continued on page 4
Over half of Durham academic staff are employed on insecure contracts, UCU figures have revealed. 53.7% of the University’s 2,495 staff are employed on either fixedterm (545) or atypical contracts (795), according to data from the HESA Staff Record 2016/17. The data shows that 0% of senior management staff, such as Vice-Chancellor Stuart Corbridge, are on fixed-term contracts. The results place Durham 55th on the insecurity ranking among 164 other UK universities listed in the data. Insecure contracts are much less common for Non-academic staff: 110 (10.6%) are on fixedterm contracts, while 920 nonacademic staff are employed on open-ended or permanent contracts. UCU says its data shows that staff on fixed-term contracts are usually in the early to mid-career range, meaning most, if not all, senior members of staff are on open-ended or permanent contracts. Fixed-term contracts have a particular end date, often lasting for one year, however a UCU survey found that around a third of contract researchers use 25% of their funded time working towards finding their next contract. “Staff employed on these contracts don’t know what the next year will bring and need to spend a lot of their time seeking the next contract,” the UCU says. Durham University scrapped nine-month contracts in May after a campaign orchestrated by ‘Durham Casuals’, as previously reported by Palatinate. The University henceforth employs Teaching Fellows for a minimum contract period of twelve months. Durham Casuals’, a group which aims to work with the University to improve working conditions, said: “Although we welcome the move to scrap 9 month contracts... Continued on page 4