It is widely known that academics up and down the UK have been striking for the last 6 days, and we will continue to strike for 4 more in a more staggered way. There are five fights currently in academia: pay, workload, equality, casualisation of labour and pension cuts. In summary, academic work has become more precarious, is less financially rewarded (our pay has actually gone down in real terms for over a deacade), we are doing more and more voluntary labour (as a result of crushing workloads and pressures), women and minority groups are still coming into academia lower on the pay scales than their white, middle-class male peers (even if they have the same qualifications and experience) and are likely to be overlooked in promotions, and now our pensions are going to be cut by 35%.
I've been working in academia since 2010. My journey started in Nicaragua and I was paid as casual staff. I then returned to the UK and had two short-term contracts: two years and then three years. I was finally offered a permanent post in 2017, satisfactory to a one-year probation. I passed that and then was submitted for the REF (Research Excellence Framework) in 2020. The future looked bright. But, I have to be honest in that I've always smelled something rotten at the core of academia.
I've had an ambivalent relationship with academia from the start because of this. There are many paradoxes inherent within it. Senior management teams tend to be white, middle-to-upper class, middle-aged men who are either promoted through the ranks or bought-in. But, the stories are very often the same - ex-colleagues will discuss how they put themselves forward for every opening when it became available and, often, were not very good at the roles they obtained; leaving the crap for others to mop up. Often women, minority groups and younger, more precarious, staff would be left to do this mopping. On top of everything else they had to do. In addition, the 'vision' that these teams would have for academia, academics and students, as a whole were often out-of-alignment with what those on the ground really needed and wanted. More and more business talk entered the equation, and staff were pressured (some would say bullied) to fill very particular roles of 'academic' to fit this vision. Which, surprise surprise, were very often out-of-alignment with the values and principles that the staff had entered into academia with.
There was an often talked about 'split' - where academics performed what was expected of them, but they used whatever time was left to pursue the things that mattered to them. This could be small scale research, scholarship, student support and guidance, building relations with outside professionals, and being active in their communities. Soon, that was also incorporated into the role of an academic. But, not just one part. ALL of it. To the point that you were forced to work crazy hours to get it all done. No surprise, the joy was gradually being eroded. It's like doing your favourite thing but constantly having a gun to your head while you are doing it. You will begin to associate what you love with what you fear. Which can become traumatic and eat away at who you understand yourself to be.
Fear is all around us. We are currently living through a peak in populist politics which has fear at its very core. Media is all around us and elevates fear even more. Then there is precarity. Few of us know how we are going to support ourselves in retirement, if we ever get there. I am directly experiencing a parent who does not have enough money to make ends meet and watched the indignity of that. She can't understand my own fears because, to her, I have it made. I have a PhD. I speak three languages. I have been a go-getter since day one and lived in seven different countries. I have a Masters in Social Research am also a qualified ESOL teacher and youth and community worker. It is incomprehensible to my mother (who never finished high school) that I could end my life in a similar way to her. That's not the narrative we were all fed.
On the picket lines there have been many discussions about leaving academia and entering into industry. Most of us could earn higher salaries out of academia. What is heartening is that the majority of academics on those picket lines did not enter into academia for the salary. But, most balanced this with aspirations of stability and a good pension. They have gone through grueling PhDs, precarious contract after precarious contract, worked 50 hours a week often for years to get to a position that feels stable and at least offers a fairly comfortable pension. That is gone now. And academics are, quite rightly, angry.
So, the question is: do we stay or do we go? If we choose the former, we can't do it without fighting. Most of us want a prosperous future not only for ourselves but for our students. We can't leave things as they are, with those at the top creaming off even more of the cheese while those at the bottom scramble for the leftovers. In addition, this will happen outside of academia as well. Pay and conditions will continue to be eroded for those on the lower to middle rungs under failing neoliberalism and hyper capitalism.
The only thing left to do is fight. It's not just a fight for academia. It's a fight for all to have a decent standard of living and some security in our later years. It shouldn't be a fight. But, that is where we are at.
