The United Kingdom universities are doing well in comparison to most universities in the world. As universities still made sure fees were collected from students the amount has grown by a third over the past 5 years. But although this has improved the pay of the staff and lecturers have not kept the same pace. Universities received £21.5bn in student fees in 2019-20, more than a third more than the £15.5bn they got in 2014-15. Spending on staff salaries has grown more slowly, with a 10% rise over the past two years compared with a 13% increase in student fees.
Jo Grady the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “The university sector is performing strongly, and this is down to the efforts of staff who work tirelessly to provide students with the best possible education. But staff will rightly be sickened to see that the significant financial growth universities have enjoyed has not been shared with them, with spending on staff being held down whilst some vice-chancellors are adding tens of thousands of pounds to their already eye-watering pay packets.”
Grady further stated that the staff of the university wanted to see that they got a better offer for all the work that they had put in. the current below-inflation increase of 1.5% being considered “offensive”. Staff also wanted an end to the wave of redundancies that has swept across universities since the start of the pandemic. Raj Jethwa, the chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, said the 1.5% offer included a higher percentage pay rise, of up to 3.6%, for those on lower pay grades. This seems like a fair answer considering the fact that these people still worked may it be from home or at the university office making sure the students did not miss out anything.
