Each year, a cohort of around 900 teaching assistants and associate lecturers are recruited specifically to assist and/or deliver teaching on a number of modules in the College.
For teaching assistants/seminar tutors and demonstrators (usually, though not exclusively PhD students), this provides what is hoped is valuable teaching experience to complement their research and aid in their professional development. The Associate Lecturers recruited from across a spectrum (industry; practice; other institutions etc) are experienced teaching staff who bring with them an impressive breadth of expertise and experience as well as a passion for their subject to their teaching, and this leads to a dynamic learning experience. While none of these posts are ones treated or designated by the College as the post of 'Lecturer' or 'member of Academic Staff', as defined in the College's Statutes since original research is not required by the College to be undertaken in the role; they are however still very important and respected roles within the College.
The College recognises that its Teaching & Scholarship staff fall within the remit of the National Framework Agreement (NFA) and a commitment has been given to reviewing and evaluating the roles undertaken and assimilating staff onto the College's pay and grading structure and harmonising their terms and conditions where applicable.
We thank all Hourly Paid staff and Management in the Schools for their feedback during the Consultation phase of the process in November 2009 which has served to inform the negotiations.
Work on the harmonisation process has been very much ongoing and we are pleased to announce some of the details on progress achieved to date.
We have now agreed the four role profiles you had a chance to comment upon..
These profiles have gone through Hay evaluation (a process that assesses the size and complexity of each job) and have been mapped as expected to Grades 6, 7, 8 and 9 on the pay-spine, with grade 6 being for teaching assistants and demonstrators and grades 7-9 for other staff.
We have also agreed the process by which everyone will be matched to one of these profiles and their rights of appeal. The matching is based on the preponderance/majority of duties the College requires you to undertake in the performance of your role with us rather than a reflection of your abilities as an individual, the other duties you are capable of performing, remuneration or your role elsewhere. You may for example be an Academic in another institution developing programmes of study and managing staff however if that is not required of you at Birkbeck then you will have been matched to the position the Academics who best know your work in your Department felt accurately reflected your role with us. This matching process has now been completed in the Schools and you should have received a letter from Human Resources outlining the role profile you have been matched to and your right of appeal if having reviewed the documentation you disagree with the decision.
In Summer 2010 the College undertook a large data gathering exercise on each Hourly Paid staff members' employment history to ensure that the employment records currently held by the Schools are an accurate reflection of contracted work with the College. Following on from this, the College has confirmed to a number of current staff their qualification to open-ended employment with the College under regulation 8 of the fixed term employees regulations 2002 (*usually by having taught for the College for two full terms each Year for four successive years). They have all received letters outlining the fact that they are now open-ended (permanent) members of staff and that they now have 'core hours' which the College will, during the planning cycle, look to find them each Year. They no longer need to receive long fixed term contracts each Year but rather, once they have received their open-ended status letter, receive an allocation of module(s) letter each Year indicating their work allocation. Each individual's record is reviewed over Summer term and as new individuals reach the qualifying period the College will write to them as appropriate.
As mentioned in the joint communication in March 2010, the College aims to give everyone with at least two years of continuous service (as per the College's working definition of continuous service*) roughly the same hours each Year. However as we indicated in the joint communication the Framework Negotiation Group has also agreed a Variation in Hours Policy to allow these hours to vary up or down by up to a third.
This Policy has two main aims; firstly to allow for temporary fluctuations in student demand for teaching provision (modules, courses) and annual revision of provision and secondly to save jobs in the current uncertain financial environment. For instance, someone who finds that a module they were going to teach hasn't recruited well enough to run may lose up to a third of their teaching for that Academic Year but they can then hope to resume their normal base/core hours. This reduction of one's hours by a third cannot be done repeatedly: i.e. one cannot lose a third of their hours one year and then another third the following year. Thus the guaranteed minimum hours of those covered under the Variation in Hours policy are two thirds of one's base hours. The policy will be reviewed in October 2012 to see if it is still necessary, and, if it is, to see if the downwards variation for which it provides can be reduced.
Where under portfolio review provision has been identified as having been duplicated or a strategic decision has been made to run down or withdraw a programme of study or other substantive business reason for teaching & scholarship staff to potentially be at risk of redundancy the College will make every effort to militate against redundancies by exercising every viable option open to it but in the event that redundancies are necessary, the College has incorporated Teaching & Scholarship staff into the main College Redundancy Policy, which is an enhancement on statutory redundancy.
If your module is looking at risk of not running due to low enrolment you should receive a letter about a month out from the start date from your Department indicating that the numbers are low. This is not uncommon and should not cause undue alarm as students often wait until the last minute to enrol on courses but we always feel it advisable to let you know how the recruitment is looking. About two weeks before the start of the module the enrolment figures will be reviewed again and you will be informed as to whether or not we now have sufficient numbers to run the module or not and what it means for your teaching allocation.
The financial forecasts of the College currently suggest that certain areas of the College will be in deficit for the next year or so. In order to return the College to a position of financial stability following the ELQ crisis [In 2007 the Government withdrew institutional funding for ELQ students - those studying for an equal or lower level qualification, with the result that the College lost about a third of its HEFCE teaching funding] we need to increase and retain the numbers of both home and international students. We have been able to persuade HEFCE of the value of our distinctive model of delivering high quality research-led teaching in a flexible manner to a diverse student body and they granted us an additional 1245 full time equivalent (FTE) additional student numbers to allow us to win back the recurrent teaching grant lost through the ELQ decision. College forecasts assume that we will meet the challenging recruitment targets involved in meeting our contract with HEFCE. If we cannot meet these targets we will be unable to fulfil our business plan and grow our way out of deficit and into a financially stable position.
In light of the uncertainty of the financial position and the challenging times ahead in Higher Education with cuts to the sector, the College is conscious that the harmonisation has to balance equitable compensation for the work being undertaken with the current constraints of affordability.
The College and UCU continue to work closely to establish a longer term harmonisation deal/package which is equitable to all. One area that is still under discussion has to do with calculating actual working hours. Even when everyone has been matched to a grade, that won't indicate what they ought to be paid. Mostly hourly paid staff are paid by the contact hour and the pay rates per contact hour generally assume additional work (to prepare teaching, mark assessments etc). We cannot implement the full agreement without an agreement about how to calculate actual working hours.
Over Autumn 2011 focus groups were held at School level comprising members of Academic and Teaching & Scholarship staff looking at the amount of time required to perform a range of tasks related to the preparation, delivery, administration and assessment of teaching. While the outcomes of these panels are not binding to either side, they have been fed back to the Framework Negotiation Group (comprising members of Senior Management and UCU) for discussion and negotiation. They will discuss centrally the outcomes from all 5 Schools and see what can be derived from them. The results were complex and varied across the board and the groups expressed different opinions on whether for example marking should be included in a multiplier or paid plain rated or piece rate separately. This is all under discussion by FNG and both sides are committed to continuing to work closely together to achieve an equitable and transparent deal and we will continue to update you all on ongoing progress.
For additional background information please see the links on the left hand side of this page which detail the Joint Statements etc.
For general information on other matters relating to Teaching & Scholarship staff such as professional development; recruitment; Payroll etc please follow this link to the dedicated Teaching & Scholarship staff website (http://staff.bbk.ac.uk/sessional_09/info).