At the University of Brighton, a group of lecturers has been downgraded to the grade of ‘demonstrators’. These staff are expected to continue delivering the courses as they always did, but are now on a lower grade and no longer get paid for the preparation and assessment that they do outside the classroom or lab. When some refused to continue for the new rate of pay, undergraduates were ask to fill in for them.
This means that up to half of the contact time to which students are entitled is being delivered by staff who are being paid a fraction of the lecturer rate. Not only is this an attack on lecturers who were already on insecure contracts, but it cannot fail to reduce the quality of the education being offered. If implemented across the University, it would mean the wholesale replacement of experienced lecturing staff by people paid only a fraction of the lecturing rate.
We, the undersigned, staff and students at the university of Brighton, call on the Senior Management of the University of Brighton to re-instate the affected lecturers immediately and to pledge to safeguard the quality of education provided at Brighton and abide by the agreements the university has reached with the unions regarding work classification and pay.
When you sign the petition please indicate your relationship with the University of Brighton in the comments box as one of the following:
• current student,
• alumni,
• staff,
• external
