How much do lecturers get paid??

a-ha · 23-10-2014 9:09am

Yes, adjuncts are afraid to unionize but why? Who hires us, the answer is heads of department (aka our colleagues) who we fear would no longer employ us if we spoke out about our pay and conditions. Why should we have to fear them? why is there no solidarity between us? They regard us as cheap labour who can take undergraduate classes on at the last second, that they do not want to teach, no questions asked. Thereby freeing up these academic 'stars' for research, attending conferences and networking. They benefit in the short term from our exploitation. They have ignored the long-term consequences to their own profession. They do not recognize that an entire generation of people will never publish because they do not have the time, or security in their employment to do so. They fail to recognize that a diminished academic workforce have no bargaining power vis-a-vis their university's increasingly bloated and inept administrations. They do not recognize that they are making themselves obsolete in the longer term.

The exploitation of adjuncts is a waste of human capital. It creates a cycle of poverty from which only a few break free and which ruins the lives and well being of many, not to mention its impact on higher education, on the quality of teaching and learning in our universities. Lecturers with no office hours, no offices, no input into the curriculum, no knowledge of the inner workings of the departments their teach in, no time to prepare for classes, no guarantee of the same subject the following or even of work at the same organization. Every year hundreds of adjuncts are forced to waste hours writing and preparing for new classes instead of improving their delivery of previous ones. If something is not done, students will soon be paying extortionist fees to pay the salaries of third level CEOs and administrators, while being increasingly taught by people who earn less than a living wage, and sometimes less than the dole. This is not only the future, it is in many cases already the present.

a-ha · 23-10-2014 9:23am

What is needed:

1. Unionization
2. Data on the number of adjuncts their annual pay in all higher level institutions
3. University rankings to take account of the number of low paid workers teaching at third level
4. An end to hourly paid contracts
5. Development and enforcement of employments laws for the precariat to end the exploitation of so called 'part-time' workers, working
what are in effect full-time hours for poverty wages.
6. Payment monthly in arrears for all staff (if not fortnightly for those on lower pay).

Sam the Sham · 23-10-2014 9:34am

a-ha

I empathise but I think your anger is misdirected if you think that permanent academics and heads of department are to blame for this situation. Heads of School/Department cannot hire permanent staff unless they are given approval. In the current situation, such approval is given very high up in the central administration, because it has to be done in compliance with the government's hiring freeze (the Employment Control Framework). In my experience, permanent staff and heads of School very much want to hire permanent colleagues for any number of reasons (including reasons of justice and some of those that you cite) but are prevented from doing so by central administrators. My own School has lost over a dozen permanent staff members since 2008 and they have not been replaced or have been replaced by adjuncts. This at a time when enrolments have skyrocketed. So not only are adjuncts increasingly being exploited, workloads for the permanents staff, far from being the gravy train you depict, have doubled: for many, dreams of carrying out research have been buried under a gigantic pile of essays to correct.

I also think you're not right about heads of department refusing to employ unionised adjuncts or those who spoke out about pay and conditions (provided they were pinning the blame and directing your demands where they should be directed, which is not on or toward the heads of department). To the contrary, I think they'd welcome such action on the part of adjuncts, as would most lecturers. Your fear is likely misplaced.

The main victims of this dispensation are the adjuncts and the students. The students have remained entirely oblivious (as usual). All they can apparently see and understand are fees. Never mind that the entire idea of a university is being gutted before their eyes. But the main culprits are the government freeze (billions for banks, scraps for education) and the central administration bureaucrats charged with implementing it.

a-ha · 23-10-2014 10:11am

Sam the Sham wrote: »

a-ha

I empathise but I think your anger is misdirected if you think that permanent academics and heads of department are to blame for this situation. Heads of School/Department cannot hire permanent staff unless they are given approval. In the current situation, such approval is given very high up in the central administration, because it has to be done in compliance with the government's hiring freeze (the Employment Control Framework). In my experience, permanent staff and heads of School very much want to hire permanent colleagues for any number of reasons (including reasons of justice and some of those that you cite) but are prevented from doing so by central administrators. My own School has lost over a dozen permanent staff members since 2008 and they have not been replaced or have been replaced by adjuncts. This at a time when enrolments have skyrocketed. So not only are adjuncts increasingly being exploited, workloads for the permanents staff, far from being the gravy train you depict, have doubled: for many, dreams of carrying out research have been buried under a gigantic pile of essays to correct.

I also think you're not right about heads of department refusing to employ unionised adjuncts or those who spoke out about pay and conditions (provided they were pinning the blame and directing your demands where they should be directed, which is not on or toward the heads of department). To the contrary, I think they'd welcome such action on the part of adjuncts, as would most lecturers. Your fear is likely misplaced.

The main victims of this dispensation are the adjuncts and the students. The students have remained entirely oblivious (as usual). All they can apparently see and understand are fees. Never mind that the entire idea of a university is being gutted before their eyes. But the main culprits are the government freeze (billions for banks, scraps for education) and the central administration bureacrats charged with implementing it.

I am not sure that senior academics should be let off the hook quite so lightly. One of the justifications for securely employed academics was to give them the opportunity to speak out if necessary (academic freedom). If they collectively stood up to the administration or even simply spoke publicly about the underpayment of their junior colleagues our lives could change. One day the scandal will break, and there will be public fury at the 'overpaid' academics in an 'ivory tower' who let it happen - that is frankly how it will play in the media. Expressing the view that the situation is tragic etc. while driving home at the end of the day in a nice car to a comfortable home doesn't cut it. Why have senior academics allowed this to happen? Those with secure jobs could seek to reverse this trend, but they have not.

This is not the product of a recession (blaming the bankers is all too easy, but really misunderstand the global trends that have been underway for not years, but decades) - the rise of adjunct labour in higher education is a global phenomenon which has been underway since the 70s if not earlier. Even as student numbers have increased, the number of real academic jobs has diminished (they are being replaced by a bloated administration and overpaid CEOs etc at third level). It is not that third level institutions do not need teachers anymore - it's just that they no longer need to pay them. What is happening is a race to the bottom in labour standards. Even if our pay could not be changed (it can) our working conditions could easily be improved - how many heads of department ask adjuncts to teach the same class two years in a row. How many timetable the adjuncts hours to allow them time to research? How many pay for adjuncts to attend conferences out of Departmental funds? How many free up a shared office for them so that they at least have a space to meet students? How many comply with employment laws by ensuring that they adjuncts they hire at least have a written contract of employment? How many hire them with more than a few days notice? How many ensure that they ask adjuncts to teach only subjects that they have expertise in or allow them to develop expertise by teaching the same subject more than once?)

I am continually amazed to discover that those who hire adjuncts have no idea what they are paid, and have never given a thought to what their terms and conditions of employment are. I have had HR staff within one institution express surprise that it is less than 10k a year. Why do departmental heads and administrators not know what we earn? Why do they not know that we are not paid monthly in arrears like they are? The answer is that they do not want to know, because if they did, they might have to take moral responsibility for it. Much easier to just walk on by. Pretend it is the fault of the 'market' rather than a moral failing of human beings, some of whom profit from this system.

redappple · 23-10-2014 11:42am

Great thread. If you really want to see examples of amazing talented people being funnelled out of academia in their 30s look no further than the Sciences where there is no hope for permanent or tenured lecturing posts for at least 10 years post doctoral stage, yet there is a limit on the amount of time spent as a post doc? The end result is people leaving for industry 6-7 years into the post doctoral phase. Complete and utter waste.

Realt Dearg Sec · 23-10-2014 12:12pm

redappple wrote: »

Great thread. If you really want to see examples of amazing talented people being funnelled out of academia in their 30s look no further than the Sciences where there is no hope for permanent or tenured lecturing posts for at least 10 years post doctoral stage, yet there is a limit on the amount of time spent as a post doc? The end result is people leaving for industry 6-7 years into the post doctoral phase. Complete and utter waste.

At least they have industries to go into, which is not the case for humanities researchers. But yeah, it's pretty terrible.

Mr.Saturn · 23-10-2014 12:22pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

At least they have industries to go into, which is not the case for humanities researchers. But yeah, it's pretty terrible.

Not industry per se, but there's always think-tanks, if you're okay with invariably working for evil at some stage.

Puddleduck · 29-10-2014 9:08am

First year mature student here but just out of curiosity why not raise the issue with the colleges SU? If real change cant be driven by students and lecturers uniting against it why not highlight the issue?

j4vier · 29-10-2014 9:41am

redappple wrote:

Great thread. If you really want to see examples of amazing talented people being funnelled out of academia in their 30s look no further than the Sciences where there is no hope for permanent or tenured lecturing posts for at least 10 years post doctoral stage, yet there is a limit on the amount of time spent as a post doc? The end result is people leaving for industry 6-7 years into the post doctoral phase. Complete and utter waste.

and they need to be lucky as well to find companies that would take them on after spending so many years as postdocs.

gline · 30-10-2014 12:13pm

Puddleduck wrote: »

First year mature student here but just out of curiosity why not raise the issue with the colleges SU? If real change cant be driven by students and lecturers uniting against it why not highlight the issue?

Because it seems to be a country-wide issue due to cuts...and democracy only works on paper :P

Realt Dearg Sec · 30-10-2014 12:41pm

Puddleduck wrote: »

First year mature student here but just out of curiosity why not raise the issue with the colleges SU? If real change cant be driven by students and lecturers uniting against it why not highlight the issue?

The SU, for all its faults, has organised the students pretty well to protest fees over the last few years. They don't represent staff, as such, although presumably grad students would be SU members so can raise issues relating to their conditions. Adjuncts who are finished their doctorates aren't members of the SU, but they are also not (at least not in any case I've heard of) members of IFUT or another teaching union. There was talk of unionising through SIPTU led by a couple of adjuncts in my department a couple of years ago, but the people leading that initiative ended up (ironically) moving into better positions, so nothing came of it in the end. If I'm not mistaken the SU is aligned with SIPTU (stand to be corrected on that). I presume if there was some kind of drive to unionise the adjuncts, to the point where being in a union was the normal state of affairs, then it would be more possible to coordinate some kind of joint action with the SU. Before then it's the same as collective bargaining, without the union it's not exactly clear who the SU would actually be collaborating with.

Sam the Sham · 30-10-2014 5:35pm

I don't think SIPTU and the SU have anything to do with each other. I'd be especially surprised if they did given the calls in 2012 by the USI for lecturer pay to be cut (a third time) because in their warped little minds they thought that might stop them from having to pay fees. All solidarity kind of went out the window at that point. Which is a shame, because students and lecturers both have every interest in stopping casualisation.

Realt Dearg Sec · 30-10-2014 5:47pm

Sam the Sham wrote: »

the calls in 2012 by the USI for lecturer pay to be cut

Just looking up the SU, they disaffiliated last year from the USI. I hadn't realised they had done the above, incredibly short sighted and not in the least bit useful in opposing austerity. It sounds, in fact, like a classic case of "I'm all in favour of austerity for YOU"

a-ha · 02-11-2014 12:50pm

The following article describes the adjunct lecturing business model very well:

https://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-teaching-class/

How much do lecturers get paid??

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