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UWE talking of extending teaching to 9pm, I think also weekends....and support staff working alternate days from home... I picked a weird year to retire - assuming I manage to get my head sorted in time... Apart from the drop in income when I switch to my pension,, I'm not even allowed into my office to clear my desk.
One of the senior managers has actually just moved-on in these circumstances...
 
No confirmation of how things will be going at our place but certainly semester 1 will be a lot of distance learning and remote lectures.

Building I'm based in is confirmed to be part of phase 1 of reopening campus on June 1. Obviously that just means getting the building ready in the first instance, so I suspect I will be asked to return to the office very soon, but I imagine that will only be a few days here and there in order to ensure support is in place for anyone in the building.
 
A bit more detail regarding the Cambridge plans, which makes it clear that it really is just the lectures they want to take online:

“The University and the Colleges will welcome as many students as possible for the start of the next academic year, guided always by advice from Public Health England. We remain committed to delivering high quality education to all our students, and to ensuring they receive as full and rich a university experience as is possible, while ensuring that we respond effectively to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Small group teaching – supervisions, seminars or individual tuition – is at the heart of our educational provision and will continue in person as much as possible. Given the likely need for continued social distancing, we have decided to suspend mass lectures in person for the next academic year. Lectures will be available online – indeed, this system is already in place in some University Departments. Lectures are only one part of the rich education that Cambridge offers and freeing space in lecture halls will allow us to concentrate on delivering small group teaching, lab work and practicals.

Colleges are planning to offer a wide range of activities, and will work hard to build up community life, even in the midst of social distancing.

There remains a great deal of uncertainty about the likely course of the pandemic and its impact on universities. I regret that partial reporting of only one aspect of our plans may have compounded this uncertainty. We will keep our plans under regular review. Our objective is to restore the full teaching programme as soon as possible. If we are able to do this sooner than currently anticipated, we will.”
 
Academics have been trapped at home without access to sometimes extensive libraries in their offices - along with other materials and special chairs and computer risers - so now there are requests for access to get their stuff - which is going to be interesting ...
 
gentlegreen said:
UWE talking of extending teaching to 9pm, I think also weekends....and support staff working alternate days from home... I picked a weird year to retire - assuming I manage to get my head sorted in time... Apart from the drop in income when I switch to my pension,, I'm not even allowed into my office to clear my desk.
One of the senior managers has actually just moved-on in these circumstances...
Click to expand...
pity it's only one
 
Does anyone understand the reluctance of some unis to furlough? It makes no sense to me except as an attempt by senior leadership to impress their Tory mates.
 
gentlegreen said:
Academics have been trapped at home without access to sometimes extensive libraries in their offices - along with other materials and special chairs and computer risers - so now there are requests for access to get their stuff - which is going to be interesting ...
Click to expand...
All our buildings are locked down but we can get permission to go in by appointment if we need to retrieve stuff, and has always been the case afaik.
 
Pickman's model said:
pity it's only one
Click to expand...
The VC is talking about very small numbers to be furloughed ... my line manager seemed to be encouraging me to consider myself "at risk" in terms of going back on site to do IT-related work.
It's true that there are lots of younger people available and slightly more able to take the very small risk ...
 
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Brainaddict said:
Does anyone understand the reluctance of some unis to furlough? It makes no sense to me except as an attempt by senior leadership to impress their Tory mates.
Click to expand...

All our events staff are working from home, scraping the barrel of things to do by organising online mindfulness days for staff, the first of which was reasonable but which have now descended into absurdity.
 
I hear of rumblings in certain quarters that students might as well pay the (full) fees and take what's on offer because there aren't any jobs to be had to tide them over ...
 
platinumsage said:
All our events staff are working from home, scraping the barrel of things to do by organising online mindfulness days for staff, the first of which was reasonable but which have now descended into absurdity.
Click to expand...
Apparently unis aren't meant to furlough publicly funded positions for which the money has already been received, but lots of their positions are not publicly funded and that's the puzzle. If you mean staff who organise events for external paying parties then their positions must be self-funding. It's weird.
 
Brainaddict said:
Does anyone understand the reluctance of some unis to furlough? It makes no sense to me except as an attempt by senior leadership to impress their Tory mates.
Click to expand...
no idea. you're right that seems to make no sense. every uni's got the same problem so why not seize the opportunity for free money?

our management are encouraging as many as possible to go on furlough in both academics & support staff. with the stated reason that we're burning through cash with massively reduced income for at least a year coming.

it's gotten to the point that the Head of HR sent an all staff email saying if anyone's got leave booked anyway for a week or two before end August we should consider taking that as 3 week's furlough at the same time (so still using your annual leave allowance). they've already banned carrying any leave days over into the next academic year so a lot of people are having to use it up now due to cancelled holidays earlier.
I've questioned this - don't see how there could be any reason to waste a leave day while on furlough since the uni's topping up the 20% payout and maintaining pension contributions. there's no purpose to the staff member who uses their leave day then instead of on a non-furlough day.
HR's response was only about how it benefits the uni to be able to claim government cash. no suggestion of benefit to the staff member. but called it a "win-win situation".
fuck that. if I end up losing a couple of days out my leave allowance because I couldn't manage to take them before end Aug I want that on record.
 
they've already banned carrying any leave days over into the next academic year so a lot of people are having to use it up now due to cancelled holidays earlier.
Click to expand...
That's horrid! We're getting a "one time only" offer to carry 15 days instead of 5, and they'll be usable up 'til 2023 instead of next year only. I've got 12.5 left myself and none scheduled after this week.
 
Chz said:
That's horrid! We're getting a "one time only" offer to carry 15 days instead of 5, and they'll be usable up 'til 2023 instead of next year only. I've got 12.5 left myself and none scheduled after this week.
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it is :(
my manager agrees and has tried escalating it. but senior management are united in not budging.
so I've booked off every Friday till September except the A-level results release day I can't :/

they announced the ban immediately things started shutting down. or rather reiterated the existing policy wouldn't be relaxed.
this before the government had published the Corona act with its provision to carry leave for 2 years. I suspect it is down to not wanting to look like they've changed their mind, even though there'd be no harm in letting us carry some now. a bit childish really. there will be a lot of sickies next year from people who've lost out on leave.


Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
Sounds more like a 'potentially fraudulent' situation to me. :hmm:
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it does doesn't it? certainly not in the spirit of the scheme even if they've found a loophole that doesn't break the law.
I do hope they've solid legal advice and not just just winging it. for all our sakes if HMRC suddenly claw back a few million
 
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Cerv said:
it's gotten to the point that the Head of HR sent an all staff email saying if anyone's got leave booked anyway for a week or two before end August we should consider taking that as 3 week's furlough at the same time (so still using your annual leave allowance). they've already banned carrying any leave days over into the next academic year so a lot of people are having to use it up now due to cancelled holidays earlier.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure that would be illegal. If you are on furlough, and the employer is claiming back money from the gov, you are not working. Strictly speaking furloughed staff should not even be checking and/or replying to emails.

I'd deffo contact your local union branch re this.

Cerv said:
it does doesn't it? certainly not in the spirit of the scheme even if they've found a loophole that doesn't break the law.
I do hope they've solid legal advice and not just just winging it. for all our sakes if HMRC suddenly claw back a few million
Click to expand...
For some institutions cash flow is as much the (short term) problem as anything so they are willing to get the money now and(possibly) deal with paying it back later.
 
Chz said:
That's horrid! We're getting a "one time only" offer to carry 15 days instead of 5, and they'll be usable up 'til 2023 instead of next year only. I've got 12.5 left myself and none scheduled after this week.
Click to expand...

we’ve been allowed to carry over 10. Although I’ve decided to book all mine. Even if I can’t go anywhere it’s better than being stuck in my spare room all day for weeks on end.

including this week which has obviously been great weather wise. just a shame not been able to get to the tip. The queues are ridiculous.
 
gentlegreen said:
The VC is talking about very small numbers to be furloughed ... my line manager seemed to be encouraging me to consider myself "at risk" in terms of going back on site to do IT-related work.
It's true that there are lots of younger people available and slightly more able to take the very small risk ...
Click to expand...

My other half is mature student at UWE and without access to the practical facilities his course becomes meaningless. The cost and availability of accommodation in Bristol area is also prohibitive so I suspect he's going to take a year out. If I was a student at any level next year looks like a good time for a gap year.
 
19sixtysix said:
My other half is mature student at UWE and without access to the practical facilities his course becomes meaningless. The cost and availability of accommodation in Bristol area is also prohibitive so I suspect he's going to take a year out. If I was a student at any level next year looks like a good time for a gap year.
Click to expand...
Humanities students will be fine 😀
I work in Humanities
 
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