Thousands of academic staff at British universities are being treated as second-class citizens on precarious contracts, says a report highlighting the “alarming rise of mass casualised labour” in higher education. Staff on short-term contracts said they felt unable to defend themselves against the demands of managers or permanent colleagues. The report explores data showing that 67,000 research staff were on fixed-term contracts, making up two-thirds of the total research staff employed at universities, alongside 30,000 contracted teaching staff, many paid by the hour. But a spokesperson for the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) said its members had been reducing the number of zero-hours contracts and “atypical contracts”, while expanding the number of open-ended staff contracts. “UCEA has over recent years worked with UCU and the other higher education trade unions to better understand employment across the HE sector,” he said.

Source: The Guardian January 20, 2020 06:00 UTC