Universities in Northern Ireland save over £1.5m as a result of strikes
Flávia Gouveia
Data obtained by The Scoop shows that the top universities in NI have saved over £1.5m in wages withheld from staff participating in strike action by the University and Colleges Union (UCU).
Illustration of annual savings since 2019. At the time of responding Ulster University was not able to provide data for 2023.
This comes at a time when many students across NI face uncertainty in the face of a marking and assessment boycott by UCU members.
The figures obtained through an FOI request reveal that Queen University Belfast has saved over £1,090,000 since 2019, while Ulster University has saved nearly £600,000.
Despite the substantial savings, Queen’s has only allocated 52 percent of the money saved to date directly into initiatives benefiting students.
This money was paid into the University Financial Support Fund, a discretionary fund which provides assistance to Queen’s students encountering financial hardship during their studies.
“With so much student hardship, the money should flow faster to good causes.”
Professor O’Connell addressing striking staff outside QUB.
President of UCU at Queen’s Professor Sean O’Connell, said that “this seems a much slower process than should be the case”.
“With so much student hardship, the money should flow faster to good causes.”
A spokesperson for Queen’s has said that in addition to their “cost-of-living response of £7.69 million” “this final allocation of funding will go into student support projects” to be agreed by the Students’ Union and University management before the end of the academic year.
Ulster University, however, has not disclosed the specific use of the funds saved. A spokesperson for the university said:
“Ulster University has a dynamic budgetary position and does not hypothecate such savings made or income generated in this way.”
“Instead, all of the University’s available resources are deployed to deliver the University’s purpose - which of course includes support for students.”
“The UCU Ulster Branch has consistently asked the university employers to put the money deducted from our members due to strike action into the Student Hardship Fund.”
Joint President of the Ulster University UCU branch, Dr Linda Moore, said: “The UCU Ulster Branch has consistently asked the university employers to put the money deducted from our members due to strike action into the Student Hardship Fund”.
“We believe that the money should not be used for any activities which are part of the university’s core functions and that the university should therefore be funding such as adequate and appropriate Student Wellbeing and Mental Health Services.”
Ulster University added they are “committed to ensuring that the Student Hardship Fund remains fit for purpose” and that it will be topped up “as and when required”.
Disputes over pay and working conditions have affected universities across the UK for over five years. As a result of the dispute, led by the UCU, students have faced disruption to their studies every year since around 2018.
The recent announcement of further action in the form of a marking and assessment boycott, may lead to delays in the release of marking and feedback of assessments.
Third year student at Queen’s University Adam Mandeville said that his “entire university experience has been massively impacted by the strikes”.
Although Adam supports the strike action, he said: “When you take into account the fact that pretty much all of my first year was online due to lockdowns, it certainly feels like I've been shortchanged”.
Continued disruption has led to some students campaigning for partial refunds of their tuition fees. Second-year politics student, Sajid Khan, is leading the campaign at Queen’s.
“I talked recently to a student who had calculated that they had wasted £170 on traveling into uni only to find out their classes had been cancelled.”
“Others felt they had been left unprepared for assignments due to cancelled classes or had been given a substandard alternative to learn the material from.”
Despite this, neither university is considering financial compensation for students affected by the strikes.
While UCU acknowledges that there has been progress on securing pensions, they do not rule out further strike action in addition to the ongoing marking assessment boycott.
Dr Moore said: “Unfortunately however, the dispute over pay, conditions and equality issues is still unresolved”.
“We hope that there will be no need for further strikes, but the employers need to address our concerns to make the progress that is needed to prevent these”
“We hope that there will be no need for further strikes, but the employers need to address our concerns to make the progress that is needed to prevent these.”
While UU has declined to withhold payment for staff participating in this action, Queen’s has announced 50 per cent salary deductions for their staff.
This move has drawn criticism from UCU’s Queen’s branch who said this response “ does not emerge out of strong leadership”.
In response Queen’s University has said: “The University does not accept the partial performance of the contract of any member of staff.”
While the university said that it retained the right to withhold 100 per cent of pay, it would instead be “providing an ex-gratia payment” to members participating in the boycott equivalent to 50 per cent of their salary.
Flávia Gouveia is The Scoop’s Science and Environment Editor and is studying for an MA in Journalism at Ulster University.