A new petition has been launched by the York Student Action Group (YSAG) on change.org demanding that students get compensated for time lost due to ongoing industrial dispute this term, where up to 5 weeks of teaching time has been lost.
They argue that the strikes have ‘cost us significant monetary and academic losses’ and that ‘quality of education for students has suffered significantly, with little recourse offered by the university authorities.’
YSAG are demanding two key things. Firstly, that there is ‘a fair rebate offered summarily to compensate for lost time and significantly damaged academic experience.’ This involves demanding the University pay in excess of £1,500 to home students, and up to ‘2x more’ (£3,000) to international students.
‘Each student’s case is different,’ they argue, ‘yet the strikes have been financially costly to the vast majority. Therefore a fair and reasonable rebate is necessary.’
Secondly, they argue that the University of York has ‘publicly change[d] its mandate to the UCEA.’
The University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) represents universities and higher education colleges in the UK in national negotiations with five sector trade unions and government bodies, councils and other university stakeholders.
‘We are concerned about the effects of future strike action, so would like the university to publicly change its mandate to the UCEA to better align with the UCU’s demands.’
The University and College Union (UCU) is a trade union representing over 100,000 university staff, and currently engaged in mass staff strike action in 150 universities across the country, including at the University of York and York St. John University.
These staff walkouts are causing mass disruption to people’s degree courses, including many undergraduate students. UCU estimate up to 2.5 million students are being impacted by these strikes.
The dispute is, according to UCU, over pay and working conditions, pensions, and the casualisation of work contracts, especially for Postgraduate Researchers.
It is currently unclear who the members of YSAG are, and whether there will be any further demands from the group to the University.