Reports

Notes from the meeting on 25/01 at SOAS

The first meeting brought together a number of PhD students/tutors, but there was also a librarian, a technician, a students’ union officer, and an engineer.

The opening discussion focused on how to encompass all of what is happening in HE, building on joint strikes. There was an interest in workers inquiry as a method: we need more case studies and applications.

On Higher Education:

It was stressed that we need to consider not only lecturers and casual teaching staff but also other workers in the university: administrative, technical, cleaning, catering, etc – both members and non-members of trade unions.

The specificity of the university as a workplace: workers can be highly invested in an institution that isn’t simply a business. There is a powerful ideology around the ideas of collegiality, democratic governance. This can mean trying to produce an education that is valuable in and of itself, whether it isn’t profitable or not. This is important right now because we’re facing an onslaught of marketisation. It also means that we don’t just want a snapshot of what is happening but to try and understand the changes taking place.

Academic workers have a number of skills that can be used in this kind of project. The shape and direction of the project is our collective decision.

Using Surveys:

Tutors (known by many different acronyms) have differing conditions, not only between different universities but also between departments. There is therefore a need for quantitative data to map our situations and try to build something independently. There is a question of how surveys can be used to gather data and also how to develop these politically.

The discussion covered a number of examples where surveys have been used and the plan is to write up these experiences for the blog.

The Blog:

There was a discussion of how to develop the blog, but to do this we need more content. Not only articles but also use of other kinds of media: graphics, audio, video, etc. There will be a dedicated part of the blog that makes it clear that we want to encourage other projects in different sectors.

Ideas for Articles:

There are two broad kinds of pieces that we could produce at this stage: either qualitative pieces about the experience of work or more analytical/theoretical pieces based either based on data, about the structure of the university, or management techniques, and so on.

Short punchy pieces would be really useful at this stage and the following articles are currently being planned.

Where next?

There was a suggestion about building towards a conference. A mix between academic and an activist conference, with a focus on trying new ways to organise the sessions and produce something at the end.

***We also want to put out a general call for pieces for the blog, please email in with ideas and we can put them up on the blog. It doesn’t need to be in the form of an article, creative contributions would be great***