UCU recently announced that 150 universities across the UK would take part in 18 days of strike action across February and March. These strikes centre on pay, working conditions and pension disputes. While many of these issues are shared with postgraduate researchers, we face the unique circumstances of being both a staff member and a student. Below, is a personal account written and shared by a PhD student who explores what navigating this duality looks like.
We go into the new year facing yet another round of strikes from university and college staff nationwide. Much of the media coverage of this round of strikes asks, “what about the impact on students”. Organisations who have stood aside and ignored our cries for better support and our struggles to afford the dual costs of living and studying are seemingly now suddenly caring about what’s in our best interest. What this coverage fails to consider is the many of us nationwide who are both staff and students.
Like many others, ever since I began my undergraduate degree I have straddled a dual staff and student identity. Throughout my undergraduate, masters, and doctoral study I have held jobs in multiple areas of the university, including in widening participation, teaching, and research assistantships. As a staff member, I have been hit by years of low pay, casual contracts, casualisation, and precarity, knowing that I only could afford my course of study and living costs so as the good will of my employers remained. As a staff member, I suffer from the poor working conditions that lead to strikes, and I withdraw my labour at a financial and professional cost in the hopes of better working conditions for myself and others.
As a PhD researcher, I am also a student. I am dependent on the mentorship and feedback my supervisors provide, on skills sessions run by university staff, and on administrative support from professional service staff members. I miss out on these things during strikes like all other students do. But I am also affected by the dire conditions staff have to work under, and due to the cost of living crisis and the lack of university support, I’ve become dependent on precarious zero-hours contracts for my living and studying costs.
My supervisors want me to focus fully on my research, but I can’t survive spiralling living costs on my stipend alone, and my university has ignored our cries for cost of living support so I’m left with no choice but to take on additional paid work to make ends meet. This dilemma is even worse for unfunded students and those with caring responsibilities, who have been abandoned. Many universities assume that students are children who come from well-off backgrounds and can depend on our families for financial support in times of hardship. But this is not true for most of us. We are adults of all ages – many students I know even have children and families of their own to support.
Despite the ‘advice’ many of us have been given, moving back in with our parents to save money has never been an option for most of us. Myself and many of my colleagues are overworked and buckling under increasing workloads, and this often leads to additional pressure on precariously employed academics to pick up the pieces. Forming an academic network is of huge importance to future academics and their outputs, but many of my precariously employed colleagues can’t guarantee they’ll still be here six months from now, let alone further into the future. Expectations of producing publications without support are leading to burnout, additional stress, and bullying. Many of my friends are now considering leaving academia. The conditions are dire and as a student I know change is needed. I hope to pursue a career in this sector, and I recognise and appreciate those withdrawing their labour in their pursuit of a fairer sector for all of us.
In both my student and staff roles I generate income for the university, from paying tuition in my student role (yes even PhD students have to pay tuition fees), to producing publications and representing the university internationally as a staff member. The coverage and criticism of the strikes aims to pit students and staff against each other. But I know that my staff and student identities are fundamentally intertwined. Staff working conditions aren’t just student learning conditions, staff working conditions often are student working conditions too. In a cost of living crisis, the most vulnerable of us and those who are already minoritised and marginalised within our sector are the ones who will be driven out of pursuing academic careers. We won’t let the leaky pipeline of academia start with us. We express solidarity with all university and college staff participating in the strikes and fighting for a fairer future in our sector.
Find out more about the Bath PGR group here, and join our fight.
