A lunchtime protest on Thursday, November 26th outside Institutes of Technology around the country will draw attention to lecturers’ grave concerns over a number of issues within their sector.
Regular service to students will not be affected in any way.
On a daily basis, lecturers see first-hand the damage that an era of austerity cuts continues to wreak on the education system and the students it serves.
Lecturers and researchers will be balloted by the TUI in the coming weeks on engagement in a campaign of industrial action, up to and including strike action, in order to secure a resolution to key issues.
Areas of concern include:
- The chronic underfunding of the Institutes of Technology (35% cut to sector- €190m – between 2008 and 2015)
- The critically low staffing levels at a time of a steep and ongoing increase in student numbers and the consequential unacceptable workload imposition on lecturers (21,411 or 32% rise in student numbers in sector between 2008 and 2015 / 535 or 9.5% fall in full-time academic staff numbers in sector between 2008 and 2015)
- The precarious employment status, income poverty and associated exploitation of many academic staff and
- The resulting, detrimental effect of these issues on the quality of service to students (larger class sizes, less access to laboratories, tutorials, student support etc)