To Professor Paul Webley,
We, SOAS students and staff, call on SOAS management to use its role in Universities UK (UUK) and the Employers’ Pension Forum to influence the body to pull back from the UUK proposals that will change USS pensions beyond recognition.
The USS pension fund for university staff has released proposals to cut the pensions payable to staff by between 11-27% (a cut of between £3,000 and £12,000 per year), and to change the way they are paid. They say that this is because there is a projected £8bn deficit in the fund. UCU say, backed up by independent studies, that the way that they have worked out the apparent 'deficit' is seriously flawed. The pension fund has seen surpluses year after year (USS Accounts:http://bit.ly/ongoingsurplus) and membership is growing. The reported 'deficit' of the scheme is predicated on the assumption that a recovery fund must be calculated to pay all future pensions if all USS-scheme universities cease to operate simultaneously (Q7, EPF Q&A,http://bit.ly/whatdeficit).
Recently a group of statisticians said assumptions used by the employers in a separate briefing contained 'misinformation and a mistake' and were not adequately justified. The employers had previously removed a whole section from a different briefing after it was revealed they had misused statistics.
UCU balloted its members during October on whether they would be prepared to take industrial action to put pressure on our employers and the pension fund to negotiate with the union over the proposed changes. Out of 17,212 members who voted, 87% voted for action short of a strike and 78% for a strike. An assessment and examinations boycott has been called for the 6th November and is set to continue indefinitely.
Staff do not want to take industrial action, but feel they have been left with no other choice because of this threat of devastating and permanent changes to their pension scheme. This attack on pensions is the latest attack on university and college staff. Staff’s pay has been cut by 13% in real terms since 2008, teachers’ labour is increasingly being casualised, more and more services are being outsourced, half of universities and two thirds of further education colleges in the UK use zero hours contracts and 12,500 workers in universities are paid less than the Living Wage. Meanwhile there is a £1 billion surplus in the higher education sector and the average salary of a vice-chancellor is £220,000.
All three unions in SOAS, SOAS Students' Union, SOAS UCU branch and SOAS UNISON, have supported calls on the universities employers body (UUK) to withdraw its proposed changes to the pension scheme, and have called on SOAS management (which is a member of UUK) to oppose the current proposals within the employers body. The dispute, and thus the marking boycott, could be ended immediately by UUK withdrawing its proposed changes and agreeing a fair settlement.
We support our teachers in their fight for a fair pension, which many have been paying into all of their working lives, and express solidarity with staff taking part in the marking boycott. We believe these attacks on staff’s pay and pensions are unacceptable. The priority of educational institutions should be to sufficiently support staff to ensure high quality teaching and research, and we believe that attacks on staff’s pay and pensions, and consequent industrial action, negatively impacts teaching quality.
We request that Professor Paul Webley, SOAS Director, the SOAS Executive Board and SOAS Governing Body make a statement opposing the current proposals for the USS pension scheme in terms of the deficit calculation assumptions and the shift to a defined contribution scheme. A number of institutions have challenged various aspects of Universities UK’s handling of the pensions issue, including Cambridge, Oxford, Essex and Warwick.
We believe that SOAS as an institution should advocate a good defined benefit pension scheme that provides a secure and predictable income to staff in retirement, and that not doing so would contradict the values of social justice that are preached in our classrooms and undermine SOAS’ support for its community.
Updates
November 4, 2014
Management continues to dodge our specific requests while pushing forward with these pension cuts behind closed doors. Email the administration office today to demand they withdraw support for the UUK proposals. We need to keep the pressure on until they acknowledge the flawed math behind their plan.
November 4, 2014
The momentum behind this petition proves our community refuses to let these pension cuts pass without a fight. Post the link to your social media accounts and email your department head to demand they push management to take a stand.
15 Comments
We are meant to be a progressive university. Let's make a stand against neoliberalism.
Absolutely shocking! These cuts but also the fees that students are being charged with. Cuts on education? never a good idea unless you are looking to achieve a considerable worsening of the quality of teaching standards!
As a student, I believe in standing with staff. Their efforts to receive fair remuneration in their retirement should be listened to and acted upon. I challenge SOAS management to take their demands seriously and to lobby UUK to withdraw their brutal attack on hard-working staff across the entire Higher Education sector.
Not only this pensions proposal are unjust, not only they undermine the quality of our learning at soas, not only they are a symptom of an austerity narrative which is excercising existing priviledges in our societies, fostering neoliberalization of our education and dismantling welfare state. What is also unacceptable, and funny at the same time, is the bias in the way this cut is being voluntarily miscalculated, so that is would appear more justifiable. This is unacceptable and is an abuse of power by who is to be held accountable for this policy-making and approving.
I support the call to maintain pensions for all University lecturers, so they have a reasonable standard of life on retirement.
Reducing pension is tantamount to reductions in pay. The SOAS management, representing a student body and academic staff who have chosen the university largely because of the reputation it has for high standards within critical approaches to social understanding, should reject these pay cuts. It is in the interest of the university to oppose such devastating cuts to the future of current academics, as the next generation of would be academics will entire other labour markets as the appeal of financial stability will not necessarily be there, and therefore the university could not charge high prices for high levels of academic quality. Almost every student I have spoken to has chosen SOAS based upon its academic reputation. UUK are doing a disservice to the academics that give SOAS such an excellent brand. Therefore the management should stand-by its employees and strongly request a change in policy
supporting my professors!
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To Professor Paul Webley,
We, SOAS students and staff, call on SOAS management to use its role in Universities UK (UUK) and the Employers’ Pension Forum to influence the body to pull back from the UUK proposals that will change USS pensions beyond recognition.
The USS pension fund for university staff has released proposals to cut the pensions payable to staff by between 11-27% (a cut of between £3,000 and £12,000 per year), and to change the way they are paid. They say that this is because there is a projected £8bn deficit in the fund. UCU say, backed up by independent studies, that the way that they have worked out the apparent 'deficit' is seriously flawed. The pension fund has seen surpluses year after year (USS Accounts:http://bit.ly/ongoingsurplus) and membership is growing. The reported 'deficit' of the scheme is predicated on the assumption that a recovery fund must be calculated to pay all future pensions if all USS-scheme universities cease to operate simultaneously (Q7, EPF Q&A,http://bit.ly/whatdeficit).
Recently a group of statisticians said assumptions used by the employers in a separate briefing contained 'misinformation and a mistake' and were not adequately justified. The employers had previously removed a whole section from a different briefing after it was revealed they had misused statistics.
UCU balloted its members during October on whether they would be prepared to take industrial action to put pressure on our employers and the pension fund to negotiate with the union over the proposed changes. Out of 17,212 members who voted, 87% voted for action short of a strike and 78% for a strike. An assessment and examinations boycott has been called for the 6th November and is set to continue indefinitely.
Staff do not want to take industrial action, but feel they have been left with no other choice because of this threat of devastating and permanent changes to their pension scheme. This attack on pensions is the latest attack on university and college staff. Staff’s pay has been cut by 13% in real terms since 2008, teachers’ labour is increasingly being casualised, more and more services are being outsourced, half of universities and two thirds of further education colleges in the UK use zero hours contracts and 12,500 workers in universities are paid less than the Living Wage. Meanwhile there is a £1 billion surplus in the higher education sector and the average salary of a vice-chancellor is £220,000.
All three unions in SOAS, SOAS Students' Union, SOAS UCU branch and SOAS UNISON, have supported calls on the universities employers body (UUK) to withdraw its proposed changes to the pension scheme, and have called on SOAS management (which is a member of UUK) to oppose the current proposals within the employers body. The dispute, and thus the marking boycott, could be ended immediately by UUK withdrawing its proposed changes and agreeing a fair settlement.
We support our teachers in their fight for a fair pension, which many have been paying into all of their working lives, and express solidarity with staff taking part in the marking boycott. We believe these attacks on staff’s pay and pensions are unacceptable. The priority of educational institutions should be to sufficiently support staff to ensure high quality teaching and research, and we believe that attacks on staff’s pay and pensions, and consequent industrial action, negatively impacts teaching quality.
We request that Professor Paul Webley, SOAS Director, the SOAS Executive Board and SOAS Governing Body make a statement opposing the current proposals for the USS pension scheme in terms of the deficit calculation assumptions and the shift to a defined contribution scheme. A number of institutions have challenged various aspects of Universities UK’s handling of the pensions issue, including Cambridge, Oxford, Essex and Warwick.
We believe that SOAS as an institution should advocate a good defined benefit pension scheme that provides a secure and predictable income to staff in retirement, and that not doing so would contradict the values of social justice that are preached in our classrooms and undermine SOAS’ support for its community.
Updates
November 4, 2014
Management continues to dodge our specific requests while pushing forward with these pension cuts behind closed doors. Email the administration office today to demand they withdraw support for the UUK proposals. We need to keep the pressure on until they acknowledge the flawed math behind their plan.
November 4, 2014
The momentum behind this petition proves our community refuses to let these pension cuts pass without a fight. Post the link to your social media accounts and email your department head to demand they push management to take a stand.
15 Comments
Also as an international student paying 16,000 pounds I feel like the university owes it to the students it promised a quality education, to at least sit with the professors and try to come to agreeable terms.
We are meant to be a progressive university. Let's make a stand against neoliberalism.
Absolutely shocking! These cuts but also the fees that students are being charged with. Cuts on education? never a good idea unless you are looking to achieve a considerable worsening of the quality of teaching standards!
As a student, I believe in standing with staff. Their efforts to receive fair remuneration in their retirement should be listened to and acted upon. I challenge SOAS management to take their demands seriously and to lobby UUK to withdraw their brutal attack on hard-working staff across the entire Higher Education sector.
Not only this pensions proposal are unjust, not only they undermine the quality of our learning at soas, not only they are a symptom of an austerity narrative which is excercising existing priviledges in our societies, fostering neoliberalization of our education and dismantling welfare state. What is also unacceptable, and funny at the same time, is the bias in the way this cut is being voluntarily miscalculated, so that is would appear more justifiable. This is unacceptable and is an abuse of power by who is to be held accountable for this policy-making and approving.
I support the call to maintain pensions for all University lecturers, so they have a reasonable standard of life on retirement.
Reducing pension is tantamount to reductions in pay. The SOAS management, representing a student body and academic staff who have chosen the university largely because of the reputation it has for high standards within critical approaches to social understanding, should reject these pay cuts. It is in the interest of the university to oppose such devastating cuts to the future of current academics, as the next generation of would be academics will entire other labour markets as the appeal of financial stability will not necessarily be there, and therefore the university could not charge high prices for high levels of academic quality. Almost every student I have spoken to has chosen SOAS based upon its academic reputation. UUK are doing a disservice to the academics that give SOAS such an excellent brand. Therefore the management should stand-by its employees and strongly request a change in policy
supporting my professors!
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Also as an international student paying 16,000 pounds I feel like the university owes it to the students it promised a quality education, to at least sit with the professors and try to come to agreeable terms.