Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Universities

We've now said that buildings will be at 20% capacity for staff and students that absolutely require it. As for us in tech services...
"Professional Services functions will in the main be delivered remotely, probably until after the extended Christmas closure that was announced recently. "
 
Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
Odds on it being part of UCL within a year?
Click to expand...
Ladbrokes and William hill have stopped taking bets on a merger being announced within twelve months. The actual merger will take a couple of years. Anyone who has watched UCL merging with other institutions eg the royal free, ssees, the institute of education will know any merger means promotions for the soas management - surely the auld position of pro-vice provost for camden and the far East will be resurrected
 
Chz said:
We've now said that buildings will be at 20% capacity for staff and students that absolutely require it. As for us in tech services...
"Professional Services functions will in the main be delivered remotely, probably until after the extended Christmas closure that was announced recently. "
Click to expand...
Are you in London?
 
little_legs said:
Are you in London?
Click to expand...
Yup. To be honest, aside from the occasional need to actually touch the hardware (got a RAM upgrade incoming that someone needs to be in for), the only reason to be in the office is the social aspect. If we're going whole hog on distancing, there won't be enough people in office to socialise with. So why bother going in at all?
 
Chz said:
Yup. To be honest, aside from the occasional need to actually touch the hardware (got a RAM upgrade incoming that someone needs to be in for), the only reason to be in the office is the social aspect. If we're going whole hog on distancing, there won't be enough people in office to socialise with. So why bother going in at all?
Click to expand...
Agreed, completely.
 
We've all had an email today from the VC asking us to voluntarily agree to return between 5%-10% of our salary to the university as a charitable donation for three months from 1st Aug to 31st Oct, and also to defer annual increments for the same period. We're also being asked to indicate whether, in the next academic year, we want to be considered for reduced hours, career breaks, purchase additional annual leave, or for those already furloughed (like me) whether we want to continue to be furloughed on a flexible basis until 31st Oct - presumably on reduced pay without the university topping up the government contribution to 100% as it is doing at present.

The university apparently wants to take these voluntary measures as a contribution to reducing the payroll bill by £22M over the next academic year, the unions think these measures won't come anywhere near this figure and that this is a way of making us more accepting of redundancies when we fail to donate generously enough. It's all looking very gloomy :(
 
PursuedByBears said:
We've all had an email today from the VC asking us to voluntarily agree to return between 5%-10% of our salary to the university as a charitable donation for three months from 1st Aug to 31st Oct, and also to defer annual increments for the same period. We're also being asked to indicate whether, in the next academic year, we want to be considered for reduced hours, career breaks, purchase additional annual leave, or for those already furloughed (like me) whether we want to continue to be furloughed on a flexible basis until 31st Oct - presumably on reduced pay without the university topping up the government contribution to 100% as it is doing at present.

The university apparently wants to take these voluntary measures as a contribution to reducing the payroll bill by £22M over the next academic year, the unions think these measures won't come anywhere near this figure and that this is a way of making us more accepting of redundancies when we fail to donate generously enough. It's all looking very gloomy :(
Click to expand...
Apparently there's only two months cash reserves left to pay salaries :eek:
 
Our place is offering a generous 'covid-19 leaver package' aka voluntary redundancies.

Considering I've only been there 4 years its a nice cash offer, but the current employment situation is pretty gloomy, so I don't fancy my chances finding something else as quickly as I may have in the past and end up eating into a fair chunk of it. Even though I'd still have to do my notice period (by which point things may have picked up, but who know) Also they won't be replacing anyone who is allowed to leave, so odds are they wouldn't let me go anyway.

Probably do my usual play it safe.
 
cybershot said:
Our place is offering a generous 'covid-19 leaver package' aka voluntary redundancies.

Considering I've only been there 4 years its a nice cash offer, but the current employment situation is pretty gloomy, so I don't fancy my chances finding something else as quickly as I may have in the past and end up eating into a fair chunk of it. Even though I'd still have to do my notice period (by which point things may have picked up, but who know) Also they won't be replacing anyone who is allowed to leave, so odds are they wouldn't let me go anyway.

Probably do my usual play it safe.
Click to expand...
Any chance you can send me the details? I’ve heard nowt...
 
Tbh senior management want people back and services open without coordinating with other unis. Eg libraries, it doesn't matter what access schemes are (un)available, if one place opens first students from nearby institutions will try to gain access. And if there's no face to face teaching why should library staff be placed in a position academics refuse? I think there will be swathes of virus in unis and rather than act cautiously senior managers will hasten and exacerbate these
 
hash tag said:
Following on from the fuss over school re openings, universities to be the next "care home crisis"?
Are people looking forward to getting back?
Click to expand...
No, I can easily see some unis having to move back onto online stuff.
cybershot said:
Not really, back 100% this week, save for a bank holiday monday.
Click to expand...
The whole workforce or just you/your area?

My employer is at least still going from a working from home where possible/not-teaching approach. There's too much on-campus activities of course.
 
Pickman's model said:
Tbh senior management want people back and services open without coordinating with other unis. Eg libraries, it doesn't matter what access schemes are (un)available, if one place opens first students from nearby institutions will try to gain access. And if there's no face to face teaching why should library staff be placed in a position academics refuse? I think there will be swathes of virus in unis and rather than act cautiously senior managers will hasten and exacerbate these
Click to expand...
Yep
 
Mrs Tag has already spent 2 days back in getting ready for the opening. She has had many heated on line meetings about the health and safety already. There will be more to come.
 
chilango said:
I do wonder, based on reading between a few lines here and there quite speculatively, whether Unis will quite happily shift to online but only once they've got the students in and signed up.
Click to expand...
No doubt some very expensive lawyers' fees are mounting up as the Unis get this water-tight of legal challenge. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Wilf
Universities and Colleges and 'Face to Face' Teaching
Replies
0
Views
278
Wilf
Wilf
YouSir
Universal Credit/Benefits system
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
298
Views
27K
NoXion
NoXion
Back
Top Bottom