An open letter to Prof. Dame Nancy Rothwell

Fairness please! Your staff are an important reseource to be valued in full if there is an expectation of a common vision for this University. Doing my best to share the dream, but there is a real contradiction here.

We do deserve to be taken seriously

I have 3 children at university and have seen fees rocketing. 1% is a very bad joke and cannot be tolerated in a just society

To be a world leading University we need world leading staff, both Academic AND Support staff! Without a living wage for everyone we are only playing at being a world-class Uni! We make a vast amount of money as a University so the arguement of not being able to afford to cover the cost of providing a living wage is plainly false.

Recently we've heard of the University trying to attract 100 World-leading minds and a voucher scheme for managers to reward exceptional staff performance. Please make a stand and show you value the work of ALL your staff by keeping our pay at least in line with the cost of living.

Please use your influence to help solve this dispute

a living wage for all university staff

Please make use of the reputation of this great university to good effect with UCEA, and support our greatest asset!

The pay offer doesn't even cover my rent increase, never mind the other bills

Goo letter - I hope it is read and the arguments considered

I am very concerned about the pressure on staff which impacts on students, and staff's own health. Please do all you can to negotiate an outcome favourable to the staff.

After years of below inflation rises - we are falling ever further behind the national average. The university clearly has plenty of money in its coffers from the £9000 fees - it is time to reward the staff that bring in this money.

I'm an Honorary Research Fellow

In addition to this, GTAs are not being paid for the hours required to perform their duties. Aside from the issues full time, salaried staff are having, GTAs are not being paid a living wage. We are preparing documentation to inform students of the low pay of their GTAs.

I think that recent work on inequality are a useful guide to practice and aspiration here. See http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ This is robust work, much of it underpinned by epidemiology.

If the University of Manchester can afford to recruit another bunch of academic "stars", then I think it can afford to be a little more generous to the hard working and talented staff, academic and non-academic, who have contributed so much to getting us where we already are.

Please, Dame Nancy Rothwell, help us to live with some decorum!

This petition supports an important fundamental principle regarding the nature of universities and how they are operated, as well as the more immediate principle relating to appropriate financial recognition and reward in the context of the recent and current higher education situation.

Please support your hard-working colleagues, Dame Nancy, and make us feel valued!

Our pay has been eroded significantly over past decades, are universities really so worthless to our society?