Palatinate Officially the UK’s Best Student Publication, 2018
Thursday 6th February 2020 | No. 825
www.palatinate.org.uk | FREE
Profile sits down with Bill Bryson and Radio 1’s Ali Plum
Interview speaks to the founder of Durfess to reveal its inner workings
Durham brings students in China home as Coronavirus spreads Tom Mitchell Editor-in-Chief Durham University has paid for flights home for students who were living in China, the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak. There had been nine Durham students spending the third year of their degree studying Chinese
language at a Chinese university. There are now no Durham students remaining in China. On Tuesday, the University offered students the opportunity to return home. On Wednesday this advice was strengthened as the International Office “instructed students currently in China to return to the UK as soon as possible”. The University said it
would meet the cost of a single flight to return to the UK. The virus has caused over 400 deaths in China, and there have now been more than 20,000 confirmed cases, exceeding the number who were infected during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2002-3. The World Health Organisation has declared an international health emergency.
Alex White, a Durham student who had been in China, said he had initially planned to stay, but “with the imminent lock-down of movement within China, it soon became apparent that the best course of action was for me to leave the country, a decision echoed by the Foreign Commonwealth Office and the University.” This comes as the first two
cases of Coronavirus were recorded in the UK last week. According to the BBC, the patients had been staying in a hotel in Yorkshire, but were transferred to Newcastle overnight to receive specialist treatment. The University has said it will continue to monitor the situation and maintain contact with Public Health England.
UCU announces further strikes
“Crisis of mental health also present among staff”
• 14 days of action will start on February 20th • University : decision to strike is “disappointing”
Jack Taylor & Tom Mitchell Editors-in-Chief
Toby Donegan-Cross, Jack Taylor & Tom Mitchell
As the UCU announce they will once again strike later this month, in part due to casualiation and workloads, Palatinate can reveal that at points last academic year up to 28% of staff absences were due to mental health. An internal university document seen by Palatinate presents data for staff absences from February to March 2019, showing that in total 27.56% of absences were due to mental health. This breaks down as 8.39% Stress, 7.28% Anxiety, 6.78% Depression and 5.11% ‘Other Mental Health’. An Associate Professor reacted to these findings by telling Palatinate: “The mental health crisis amongst students is also present amongst staff. Sixty hour weeks are not uncommon, many staff are suffering from anxiety themselves even as we try to encourage you, our students to look after your mental health. “No amount of free yoga classes will make up for heavy workloads and inhuman research expectations around writing or grant capture. These are systemic problems – a competitive research culture and a marketised university system funded through student debt creates pressure and it is students and staff that pay... Continued to page 3
The University and College Union (UCU) announced on Monday that its members at 74 universities will strike for the second time this academic year. The industrial action will begin on February 20th and will escalate each week, culminating in a week-long walkout from Monday March 9th. Durham University has already faced action this academic year, with UCU members taking part in industrial action from November 25th until December 4th. Disputes centre around two issues, the first being the impact of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and its rising cost to members. Changes to the scheme since 2011 have sparked action after independent analysis showed that a typical union member will pay around £40,000 more into their pension but receive almost £200,000 less in retirement. The UCU is also striking over universities’ failure to make “significant improvements” on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads. For students at Durham since 2017 or before, this will be the third time that their studies have been affected by strikes. This round of
▲ After three shows DUCFS had raised £171,000 (Toby Lowenstein)
walkouts comes less than two months after the conclusion of the previous industrial action. The 2018 and 2019 strikes affected 61 and 60 universities respectively. This makes the upcoming strikes, affecting 74 universities across 14 days, more nationally significant. Complaints about perceived slashes to staff pensions are now combined with concerns such as the ‘casualisation’ of work, and BAME and gender inequality. Palatinate reported last year that Durham is far below the Russell Group average for employing BAME staff, at just 7% compared to an average of 13.7% across other universities for the 2017/18 academic year. These employment statistics are despite the fact that 23% of all job applications to Durham came from BAME candidates in the final quarter of 2018. During the 2019 strikes, some departments held ‘teachouts’ at Durham Miners Hall, for example, the English Department held creative writing workshops and film screenings. Last year’s strike culminated in a protest in the Palatine Centre, which holds the Durham Law School, student services as well as the University’s headquarters. One 3rd year student commented:”I’m actually really annoyed about this, I’m missing all my contact hours... Continued to page 3