Wednesday 17th January

Academic related staff

“Since NATFHE didn’t really recruit academic related staff how do we know you’d look after our interests?”

Librarian – Birmingham

It’s true that NATFHE didn’t recruit academic-related staff on the scale that AUT did. That was primarily because UNISON was the recognised union for these staff in FE and in post-92 institutions.

Nevertheless NATFHE did have several hundred academic-related members and we campaigned for their interests as strongly as for any other groups of staff.

Academic-related staff are a crucial part of the academic team – but seriously under-valued in my view.

They have a range of specialised roles such as learning facilitators, administrators, librarians, teachers, archivists, computing staff, web team managers, international officers, alumni officers, editors, brand managers, lab managers, safety officers, technical services managers, housing officers, faculty managers, transport managers, regional development managers, careers officers, student advisors, student union managers, and planning officers.

Here are what I see as the main challenges and what I would do.

In institutions academic-related staff have often been a target for ill-advised cost cutting most notably through:

♦ attempts to skill mix staff and use less skilled staff to do jobs previously undertaken by the appropriately skilled and experienced staff;
♦ attempts to replace parts of their role with inappropriate technology (notably in libraries) often based on a serious misunderstanding of the role;
♦ downgrading following the Framework Agreement where large numbers have been threatened with red circling
♦ a worsening of terms and conditions as a result of harmonisation downward instead of up to the best terms and conditions in the sector, during the job evaluation exercise
♦ increasing workloads not matched by increased staffing
♦ demands to meet ever tightening targets and deadlines to meet meaningless goals which distort work priorities
♦ an increase in bullying and stress due to pressure to meet these deadlines and constantly changing priorities
♦ no time for learning or study required to keep up with developments in their area of work
♦ increases in short term contracts where jobs are funded purely for the duration of a project

Too many higher education institutions don’t fully accept the contribution or expertise of academic-related staff in their governing bodies. Too often academic related staffs are treated quite differently and less favourably in employment practices based not on their contribution but on inaccurate perceptions;

There appears to be an increasing attempt to break the links between academic and academic-related staff in salaries, grading and career progression within the academic team;

I recognise the prominent role that academic related staff have played in building Local Associations in pre-92 universities. I am absolutely clear that our union is strengthened by having in membership academic-related staff.

There remains a major job to be done to persuade senior management that academic-related staffs are members of the academic team who make an important contribution to higher education.

If I were elected General Secretary, working alongside academic related staff members I would:-

1. Seek to ensure greater understanding within institutions, funding bodies and where necessary amongst our own membership, about the essential role academic related staff play in the academic team, you can view the Academic Related Charter here - http://www.aut.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=86

2. Seek equitable treatment of academic related staff in their treatment, terms and conditions recognising their professional role

3. Seek an immediate review of grading of academic related staff to learn lessons from the Framework agreement implementation so far and consider what negotiating steps can be taken to reduce current red circling and the risk of future downgrading

4. Campaign to bring academic-related staff terms and conditions up to the level of the best that can be found in HE

5. Seek agreement with the employers for entitlement for paid educational leave or training to enable professional development for academic related staff

6. Encourage the membership and active participation of academic-related staff, and ensure they have their own national structures and networks to develop their work within the union and in higher education

7. Work with academic-related staff inside UCU taking up all these issues at a national level rather than leaving college or university branches/LAs to fight alone.