UCLU Postgraduate Association

Registration is now open for an exciting event open to all UCL postgraduates! On Friday 15 June 2012 you have two-minutes to talk about your research (thesis/dissertation) in an informal setting with limited visual aids/props.

Email us with your name, level of study (Masters, PhD), your department and topic to register. Space is limited so register soon.

WIN a prize: £200: First Place and cash prizes for 2 runner ups.

How do you register and how is it judged?
Register ahead of time by simply sending the PGA an email

You will be judged based on what you’ve said, how you say it and whether or not it’s accessible to a wider audience.  As well as communicating well orally, you also need to be able to communicate the significance of your research in a creative way. 3 impartial judges (non-academics) will select the best presentations for prizes.

Who is eligible to enter?
Anyone who is a registered UCL PhD or Masters student (thesis under submission is OK but no graduates). If you are still debating on your choice of thesis topic, you are still eligible to enter and it might be a good exercise to aid you in your choice.

Why participate?
It’s a great opportunity to build your communication skills, confidence and see what people make of your research when you try to explain it out loud. Plus, you could win £200 for first place or a runner up prize.

Is this different from the PGA’s TEyD event?
We are making slight amendments to last year’s event, including the addition of a PPT slide and the option for you to use a prop!

Can I bring friends and course mates?

Yes, the more the merrier!

See below for  the letter being sent to candidates in the London 2012 Mayoral and GLA elections on behalf of UCLU Postgraduate Association and many other London student unions, as part of UCLU’s wider campaign to defend and extend the rights of part-time PhD students. For more information or if you are a candidate, to make the pledges, please contact uclu-pga.officer@ucl.ac.uk

 The Pledges

1. “If elected, I will vote, work and campaign to extend student Council Tax discounts to part-time PhD students across the capital.”
2. “If elected, I will vote, work and campaign to extend student Transport for London discounts to part-time PhD students across the capital.”

Pledging candidates

(N.B. All candidates listed so far agreed to both pledges, and the Green Party signed all of its candidates up collectively):

Mayoral
Jenny Jones (Green)

Dear London Election Candidates,

We are writing as representatives of London’s part-time PhD students about the discriminatory financial situation facing these students.

PhD candidates are relatively independent researchers undertaking years-long projects that push the boundaries of knowledge and benefit their institutions and society. However, the majority of part-time PhD students are self-funded, relying on jobs held alongside intensive academic commitments, loans, savings and family assistance to pay not only their living costs, but tuition fees on top. In a recent survey at University College London (UCL), where part-time students make up over a fifth of PhD candidates, nearly 80% had no support from commercial sponsors or government or charitable funding bodies. Almost half of respondents were concerned that a lack of funding might force them to abandon their research and leave the university. In contrast, the majority of full-time PhD students are funded, for instance by the Research Councils (though cuts to this funding are also having worrying effects on access to higher degrees).

It is therefore concerning that part-time students are ineligible for the standard student discounts on Council Tax and Transport for London travelcards, which are offered to their full-time counterparts, and indeed these issues were repeatedly (and angrily) raised by respondents to the UCL survey. Criticisms of the situation ranged from “problematic” to “outrageous”. Discrimination appears particularly unfair when the criteria to qualify for these discounts are considered. A full-time course must require at least 21 hours of study per week for 24 weeks per year to qualify its students for Council Tax discounts[1], and “studying or writing up for 15 or more hours a week” for TfL discounts[2]. Part-time PhD students invariably need to study significantly longer hours than this, year-round, and yet they fail to qualify for these discounts on the technicality that they are designated separately to full-time PhD students (who would usually have no other significant work commitments and generally put in much more than a 40 hour week on their research).

These financial disadvantages for part-time PhD students come on top of their struggles to finance their own fees and living expenses, and have significant implications for the accessibility of higher education, for drop-out rates, and for the research outputs of our city’s universities. There are approximately 400,000 students in London, of whom over a quarter are postgraduates. Current and aspiring postgraduate students, their parents, and all Londoners interested in fair, accessible education, will be interested in your position on these issues as a candidate in the upcoming elections. Therefore, we are calling on all candidates to sign up to the following 2 pledges:

1. “If elected, I will vote, work and campaign to extend student Council Tax discounts to part-time PhD students across the capital.”
2. “If elected, I will vote, work and campaign to extend student Transport for London discounts to part-time PhD students across the capital.”

Please let us know your thoughts on these important issues by emailing uclu-pga.officer@ucl.ac.uk or writing to Ben Towse, Postgraduate Association President, UCLU, 25 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AY. We await your responses with interest.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Towse

President, UCL Union Postgraduate Association

Dante Micheaux

Postgraduate Research Students’ Representative, NUS National Executive Committee

Michael Chessum

Chair, University of London Union Senate

NUS National Executive Committee

Sean Rillo Raczka

Vice-President and President-elect, University of London Union

Simisola Smith
Vice-President Academic Affairs, King’s College London Students’ Union

Christopher Hares

Postgraduate Taught Campaigns Officer, King’s College London Students’ Union

Jamie Woodcock

Postgraduate Officer, Goldsmiths Students’ Union

Alex Peters-Day

General Secretary, LSE Students’ Union

Arianna Tassinari

Co-President Welfare & Education, SOAS Students’ Union

James Meadway

Postgraduate Officer, SOAS Students’ Union

Rob Scully

President, City University London Students’ Union

Ben Westhead

President, SUARTS (University of the Arts London)

Manojkumar Iyer

President, Middlesex University Students Union

Claire Locke

President, London Metropolitan University Students’ Union

Robert Tang

President, Graduate Students’ Association, Imperial College Union

Daniel Lemberger Cooper

President, Students’ Union, Royal Holloway, University of London

David Pavitt

Postgraduate Student Officer, Students’ Union, Royal Holloway, University of London

Annabel Jones

Chair, Birkbeck Students’ Union

Shakira Akther

Vice-President Campaigns, University of East London Students’ Union

Photo – Bruno Girin.

As a PhD or Masters student, do you feel there are areas for improvement within your department, or do you feel your department deserves praise for its good practice? Either way, the PGA want to hear from you!

The UCLU Postgraduate Association and the UCL UCU (University and College Union—the trade union for academic and related staff, including postgraduates) are conducting a survey about all types of work that Postgraduate students may do for UCL. This includes paid employment and unpaid tasks which students may do for UCL or their supervisors. Examples of the type of work might include:

• teaching
• administrative responsibilities
• lab supervision
• typing and data entry

To take the survey visit: Postgraduates at Work

For one week UCL students were given the floor to vote their new representatives in the UCLU Elections. After 28,029 ballots by 3,558 voters, 18 candidates were elected to be your Full and Part time officers. Here’s what you chose…

Full-Time Officers 2012-2013

Democracy and Communications Officer

Elected: Sam Gaus
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 2,195 (inc. 122 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Education & Campaigns Officer

Elected: Edwin Clifford-Coupe
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,908 (inc. 235 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Ethics, Environment & Operations Officer

Elected: Natasha Gorodnitski
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,831 (inc. 283 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Medical & Postgraduate Students’ Officer

Elected: Dante Micheaux
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,947 (inc. 328 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Student Activities Officer

Elected: Abdul-Ahad Akbari
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 2,687 (inc. 216 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Welfare & International Officer

Elected: Candy Ashmore-Harris
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 2,010 (inc. 204 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Part-Time Officers 2012-2013

Activities Officer

Elected: Sabeeh Imran Rasool
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 2,282 (inc. 361 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Community Officer

Elected: Hannah Webb
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,819 (inc. 230 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Education Officer

Elected: Sahal Quazi
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,692 (inc. 302 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Equality Officer

Elected: Abdiqadir Mohamed
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,761 (inc. 335 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Ethics & Environment Officer

Elected: Laurence Cannell
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,576 (inc. 411 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

International Students’ Officer

Elected: Mehran Bhatti
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 618 (inc. 79 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

LGBT Officer

Nominations will be re-opened for this position.
Total number of ballots cast: 128 (inc. 2 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

RUMS Officer

Elected: Gareth Chan
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 273 (inc. 15 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

SSEES Officer

Elected: Cecilia Rossler
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 108 (inc. 9 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Student Media Officer

Elected: Kit Weaver
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,566 (inc. 264 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Union Chair

Elected: Layth Hanbali
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 2,020 (inc. 254 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF)

Women’s Officer

Elected: Beth Sutton
Candidate Profile
Total number of ballots cast: 1,608 (inc. 315 abstentions)
Detailed Results (PDF).

Fancy learning a new language in the new year? Or, want to practice conversational English?

Fortnightly on Saturdays, starting at 10.30am

March 10th 2012

at

UCLU George Farha Cafe Bar

UCLU have launched an innovative scheme to kick the New Year off. The Language Café aims to bring together students who wish to learn a new language or practice their discussional language skills.

Every month will feature new languages - Our next Language Café will be in MARCH 10TH, featuring the following languages: ENGLISH (International Students), MALAY, FINNISH, SPANISH and BENGALI!

So come along to the Language Café to meet new people, enjoy a cup of tea and start your weekend off with a leisurely morning conversation to boost your foreign language skills. All levels welcome.

This is a FREE event.

UCLU George Farha Cafe Bar
Lewis’s Building,
136 Gower Street
WC1E 6

Join our Facebook event: Language Café

And for more information, or to provide personal feedback, please join the International Student Forum

THE STAFF PENSION DISPUTE AND INDUSTRIAL ACTION

– information for postgrads

The situation

Academic and related staff at UCL and other pre-1992 universities are members of the USS pension scheme. Both employers and employees put money in. Despite the relatively good health of the fund, employers have forced through changes to the scheme which require greater contributions from employees (but not employers) but yield poorer returns on retirement. Staff will likely end up having to work longer. This will especially affect new staff, and also includes a reduction in employers’ liabilities to pay out when making redundancies – i.e. cutting staff and the labs they run, the courses they teach, and the student services they provide. These changes were made despite almost unanimous opposition from staff, and even though the UCU – the union representing these staff – did not oppose reform outright and made counter-proposals which would have shared costs more fairly. These proposals, and staff objections, were rejected and the employers railroaded theirs through.

The employees’ response

In response to this failure of negotiations, UCU members voted overwhelmingly to authorise industrial action. Since October 10, they have been working to contract. If the employers relent, action will progress no further, but if not it will escalate, potentially to a strike on November 30^th – the same day many unions are striking in response to attacks on other pension schemes. UCL Union has general policy supporting education unions and their campaigns.

Students supporting the campaign

Support for UCU industrial action was an election promise of the current PGA President, and has subsequently been endorsed by UCL Union’s council and unanimously by an open meeting of postgraduate students. As students, it is in our interest that staff responsible for our education are not forced to work harder and longer under stress for less pay. The Universities Financial Directors’ Group admitted that attacks on pension schemes would make it harder to recruit and retain the best educators, and cheaper redundancy processes make it more likely that our courses and services will be cut. In particular for postgraduate students, many of us are aiming for careers in academia – or in other public services whose pension schemes are facing similar, linked attacks. Indeed, the USS changes will hit future members – us – hardest.

What can I do?

If you work for UCL in an academic-related role – e.g. as a teaching assistant – you can join the UCU as a full member and take part in the ongoing industrial action by refusing any duties not required by your contract – and if the strike on November 30 does go ahead, by not coming into work at all on that day. As a UCU member, the union will also be able to help you defend your own pay and conditions here and now as a UCL employee.

Other students can help too. Talk to your colleagues and teachers to let them know you back their campaign – simple support is a great morale-booster when management will be trying to pit students against staff. If the strike does go ahead, UCL Union and the PGA are calling on all students to join in by not coming onto campus – don’t cross picket lines! Finally, postgrads planning careers in academia can join the UCU totally free as student members and participate in the union’s democratic processes. This is a great way to demonstrate your support and defend your future pension, pay and conditions.

Join the UCU at www.ucu.org.uk/join today!

Until we get a new Committee up and running, the best place to find PGA updates will be on our Facebook page – Like us here!

NUS Postgraduate Students Section Conference 2011
UCLU Delegate Report
Ben Towse, PGA Executive Committee

NUS Postgrad Conference 2011 took place on 12-13 May at Yarnfield conference centre. I was UCLU’s voting delegate (each union gets one), and I was accompanied by Alex Nesbitt (Medical and Postgraduate Students Officer) and Diana Hawk (Postgraduate Development Worker).

Unfortunately, UCLU presently appears to lack a requirement or mechanism to elect the voting delegate to sections conferences. I was informally appointed within the PGA exec. I strongly recommend that this be rectified when the new forum guidance documents are written, either by holding specific elections or by explicitly mandating a particular elected officer (e.g. PGA President) to go ex officio.

Workshops and Discussions

The first day was taken up with discussions and workshops. UCL’s delegation split up to participate in as many of them as possible. I won’t recount it all here but a couple of particularly noteworthy points from my sessions:
• HEFCE is proposing to weight funding of government funding for doctoral places according to the REF (Research Excellence Framework – replacing the RAE as the assessment of universities’ research quality). NUS has policy against research concentration, which this conference reaffirmed (see policy discussion below).
• In a session we shared problems and good practice on engagement, the single best simple idea I encountered was from Leeds – when students log onto their version of Moodle or Portico, there is a dedicated box on the screen which says “____ is your course rep, _____ is your faculty rep” and contains pictures and links to email them. I strongly recommend we push for something similar here to make StARs and faculty reps visible and accessible to the students they represent.

UCU and employment of postgrads

One dominating topic of discussion was defence of the rights of postgrads who are employed by their university to teach. This applies to a very large proportion of research students at one point or another. NUS and UCU (Universities and Colleges Union – the union representing academic and academic-related staff) have collaborated to produce a charter setting out best practice for the terms and conditions of postgrad employment, covering everything from proper training and support to fair rates of pay. Individual unions are being encouraged to take the matter forwards at their respective institutions, and UCLU PGA has already initiated discussions with the Graduate School on the issue. Expect to hear more about this in the coming months. One important fact to note is that any postgrad student who does any paid work as a lab demonstrator etc. etc. has the right to join the UCU, which as a trade union has the ability to represent and defend their needs and interests in ways that student unions alone cannot. In fact, any research student can join as an associate member since they are on the academic career track.

Postgrad sabbs

Since UCLU has policy to create a postgrad sabb officer and the PGA is mandated to do some research on this, I took the opportunity to find out how other universities do it. Unfortunately I could only find one full-timer actually attending the conference – Nottingham’s, Morgan Stankey (I have separately researched/contacted others who were not there). Nottingham has an odd situation since it has a very large number of sabbs, not all of whom are equally senior. Morgan is not on her union’s exec or trustee board – she said she would find it useful to be on exec and in fact ended up shouldering many exec responsibilities anyway, but did not feel that being off the trustee board hindered her work. The position is elected along with all the others in Spring and only postgrads can vote. Unlike the other sabbs who take office at the start of summer like ours, the postgrad sabb-elect usually participates in some training then but handover of responsibilities is not until Sept/Oct, to accommodate the later finish dates of Master’s courses. Morgan recommended a very specific job description and a clear policy of passing matters on to specialist sabbs (Welfare etc.) to avoid the risk that the postgrad sabb simply ends up having to do everything. Overall, she believed that having a full-time postgrad sabb was worthwhile.

Elections

The conference elects a national committee annually by STV with various reserved places, consisting of (this year’s winners in brackets):
• Postgrad Research rep who also sits on NUS National Executive Council (Dante Micheaux, UCL and incumbent)
• Postgrad Taught rep who also sits on NUS National Executive Council (George Charonis, Sussex)
• Second research rep (Matthew Neaves, University of the West of Scotland)
• Second taught rep (Michael Young, London Met)
• 2 open places (Dora Meredith, Birmingham; Rhianna Humphrey, Stirling)
• Ex officio – can be an undergrad sabb who is interested in contributing (Laura Howell, Glasgow Caledonian – incumbent second taught rep)

My vote: 1. Dante Micheaux, UCL (I was one of Dante’s nominators); 2. Rhianna Humphrey, Stirling; 3. Matthew Neaves, UWS; 4. Michael Young, London Met; 5. Dora Meredith, Birmingham; 6. RON.
So I RONed the remaining candidates – Charonis (Sussex), Adeyemi (Kings), Howell (Glasgow Caledonian), McKay (???), Oshunkoya (???).

Speeches were short (and frequently rather non-specific) and most candidates did not have a manifesto, so other than those I spoke to at length or already knew, it was difficult to get a clear sense of their positions. Dante’s re-election is good news for the activism-inclined wing, while his new PGT counterpart tended to convey a rather more consumerist attitude to education. Of the others, Rhianna stood out as talking about fighting against the unregulated fees market, backing caps, low-cost loans and transparency. Many candidates talked about integrating NUS postgrad representation across all the liberation campaigns and sections (LBGT, international students etc. etc.).

Policy

This conference sets policy for the postgrad section of the NUS. It is unclear to me to what extent this binds the whole national organisation (it seems likely that it has some influence but ultimately can easily be ignored by the national leadership). A great deal of policy was uncontroversial and passed unopposed. The complete agenda, with details of my votes and what passed and fell, can be found at ___[link]____. Here I will highlight some of the more significant points (I cannot pretend there is any way this exercise can be impartial).
• Masters fees – NUS already has strong policy to fight against the uncapped, unregulated fees market and for transparency and financial assistance (in the form of low-cost loans) and ultimately the abolition of fees, thanks to motions sent to the main national conference this year by UCL and QMUL. This conference set the national committee to do some appropriate research and campaigning but did not fundamentally alter the existing position.
• Research funding – NUS already has policy against research concentration. In a personal capacity I successfully proposed a motion re-affirming this, opposing funding cuts both overall and those targeted at subject areas the government feels aren’t “useful”, and defending academic freedom and independence. It calls for national and local campaigning, and NUS backing for a range of tactics from lobbying to direct action.
• National demonstration – In a personal capacity I proposed a call on the NUS leadership to set an autumn date ASAP for a national demo to defend education. Among various people taking sides, the national Postgrad Research rep, our former PGA President, spoke in support, while the VP Higher Education opposed it (making the rather puzzling argument that organising and building for a national demo would somehow hinder the development of local campaigns on every campus). The motion was voted down – it was clear but not overwhelming. Note that some NUS leaders, who in April claimed not to oppose a demo but to be unwilling to commit to a timeframe, are now publicly speaking against holding one at all.
• UCU and postgrads who are also employed – We voted for the committee to take forward the campaign on employment rights for postgrads (see above), and also for NUS to work closely with the UCU and encourage all local unions to do the same in the interest of postgrads.
• Immigration – A huge proportion of postgrads are international students. We voted to campaign against current immigration policy proposals and for the reinstatement of the post-study work visa.
• ‘Value for money’ – The question of whether to talk about students as consumers seeking ‘value for money’ is an ongoing debate in the student movement. One motion (PG14) proposed yes, at least with respect to international students. I proposed to delete the relevant clauses and the conference clearly rejected the consumerist attitude.
• Journal pricing – This motion argued that the cartels that publish academic journals are using their power to charge extortionate prices to university libraries. There is a national campaign to unite UK research libraries to fight back – the conference voted to back it and work with all relevant parties. This is an issue that we have also been looking at in the London network of postgrad reps.

Conclusions

You will have your own feelings about the political outcomes of the elections and policy votes. The conference was a relatively useful experience in terms of discussions with reps from across the country, sharing problems, experiences and best practice (although not all the sessions were that good). A lot of the information gained is likely to be of use in the PGA’s work at UCL. In future years and as resources permit, sending multiple officers (including sabb-elects if they are able) with observer status to participate in the discussions would help develop UCLU’s ability to effectively provide for its very large postgraduate population.