University Lecturers' Strike

[ardcarp]

One of my grand-daughters, currently in her 2nd year at university, is quite exercised about the forthcoming strike. It will mean a fortnight without lectures, seminars, tutorials or anything else.

Having looked it up....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42776449

...I find myself in deep sympathy with the lecturers who are having their pensions interfered with. I'm sorry for my grand-daughter too, she being of the generation that will end up with vast debt and who really works hard to get the most out of her 'salad days' (if they can still be described as such).

Any thoughts?

[Historian]

This is the future, probably. I suspect that we will see similar measures enacted regarding other public-sector (or similar) pension schemes, school teachers for example.

[Bryn]

This is the future, probably. I suspect that we will see similar measures enacted regarding other public-sector (or similar) pension schemes, school teachers for example.

Robert Maxwell lives!

[ardcarp]

Changing the terms of a pension scheme from how they were originally formulated should be a criminal offence. Glaring example? Women promised a state pension aged 60 having (in some cases) to wait six more years.

[greenilex]

Nicking small sums from the pension pot must be an ongoing temptation in our broken system, don’t you think?

[french frank]

Nicking small sums from the pension pot must be an ongoing temptation in our broken system, don’t you think?

It is a symptom of a bigger problem, isn't it?

[HighlandDougie]

As someone in receipt of a pension from USS (the Universities Superannuation Scheme), I sometimes wonder briefly if we pensioners should voluntarily reduce those pension payments as one way of helping avoid the death of the final-salary pension for university staff. Then I think back to quite how USS got itself in to its current position and I wonder if I wasn't in some way complicit by not questioning the competence of the two trustees who were the-then chairs of the pension scheme trustees and my immediate bosses in the last two universities in which I worked (the second one for a very short period, thankfully).

Having been the chair of the trustees of a pension fund in my time, I know that it is not an easy task on the part of trustees, fund managers or actuaries but I was also a bit sceptical about the competence of the USS trustees, fine and upstanding people that they were, in exercising appropriate oversight over an in-house investment team which might charitably be described as, "complacent" and who always seemed to be a bit out of their depth with what at the time was a £25 billion fund. "Nicking small sums from the pension pot", is one way of putting it but universities used USS to help fund generous early retirement/severance deals ("Actuarial reduction of the pension?" - no, just say that they were made redundant and they'll get the full amount as pensioners). In short, it's the poor lecturing staff who are being made to suffer for the lack of oversight and of any great sense of moral or, indeed, fiscal responsibility on the part of their supposed superiors in individual institutions when faced with a system-wide problem. I share part of the blame for that and it nags away at me from time to time, particularly when I see what is being proposed. So, while I sympathise very much with Ardcarp's granddaughter and the distress and disruption which will be being caused, taking industrial action seems to me to be an appropriate means of trying to bring university governing bodies to their senses in getting them to realise that it is not someone else's problem - and nor does paying their vice-chancellor and over-stuffed senior management team self-inflated salaries help the staff who are, of course, earning the wherewithal to pay those salaries.

[french frank]

Last time I heard from USS they included a note which they said was to clarify the recent 'misleading' newspaper headlines (several months ago by now). They sought to reassure pensioners that the reserves/assets were quite enough to cover pensioner requirements. By which I assume they meant present pensioners rather than those who would be retiring in the future i.e current teachers. (Can't find the note now)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

After years of public sector pay freezing, followed by token 1% pay limits, this situation was inevitable.

Public sector pension funds don't really exist. The money collected just goes into the general tax post and is spent on whatever governments decide to do with it.
In the case of Teachers' pension, there was one year (2004, I think) when more was paid out than came in. Otherwise, more has been paid in than out, yet contributions were increased (and benefits reduced) to pay for the "deficit". As Bryn says, Robert Maxwell is still very much with us.

[subcontrabass]

After years of public sector pay freezing, followed by token 1% pay limits, this situation was inevitable.

Public sector pension funds don't really exist. The money collected just goes into the general tax post and is spent on whatever governments decide to do with it.
In the case of Teachers' pension, there was one year (2004, I think) when more was paid out than came in. Otherwise, more has been paid in than out, yet contributions were increased (and benefits reduced) to pay for the "deficit". As Bryn says, Robert Maxwell is still very much with us.

USS is a funded scheme, with currently more than £60Bn invested. Details of the investements can be found on the USS website at https://www.uss.co.uk/how-uss-invest...nd/performance

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

USS is a funded scheme, with currently more than £60Bn invested. Details of the investements can be found on the USS website at https://www.uss.co.uk/how-uss-invest...nd/performance

Oh, I see. Not like the Teachers, Civil Service and NHS.

[HighlandDougie]

Last time I heard from USS they included a note which they said was to clarify the recent 'misleading' newspaper headlines (several months ago by now). They sought to reassure pensioners that the reserves/assets were quite enough to cover pensioner requirements. By which I assume they meant present pensioners rather than those who would be retiring in the future i.e current teachers. (Can't find the note now)

It was hardly worth the paper it was printed on. And, yes, they did mean pensioners, rather than active members of the scheme, who are still contributing. It is one of the largest pension funds in the UK, hence the need for active fund management and robust stewardship by the trustees. The chair has traditionally been a vice-chancellor, which is (possibly) appropriate but, given the demands of that position, I'm not sure that being chair of USS necessarily gets the attention which it deserves.

[Mary Chambers]

Any university student, at least in the arts, should be able to survive two weeks without lectures etc. It isn’t school. They should just do their own research and organise their own discussions, very easy these days. It is probably more complicated for medics, though.

[Beef Oven!]

Any university student, at least in the arts, should be able to survive two weeks without lectures etc. It isn’t school. They should just do their own research and organise their own discussions, very easy these days. It is probably more complicated for medics, though.

Unlike us, today's students are paying fees. 2 weeks is about £600 worth of service they'll be denied, even though they must pay for it.

[french frank]

Unlike us, today's students are paying fees. 2 weeks is about £600 worth of service they'll be denied, even though they must pay for it.

Sometimes I wonder whether it's worth pointing out that students pay nothing; thereafter what they pay depends on what they earn, not on what they 'owe'. Two students having done the identical course, one chooses to work for a charity for peanuts and never pays a penny, another gets a job in the City and pays for the whole lot. It's how income tax works - the more you earn, the more you pay.