From the Provost: answers to your questions on strikes

211004_j-tye_ucl_79_branding-9243_web_ready_800x500.jpg A message from the President and Provost, Dr Michael Spence. Dear all,  Over recent weeks, I have received a lot of emails from students expressing anxiety about the impact of the eighteen days of UCU strike action that are currently underway, as well as support and sympathy for the staff who are taking the action. Your elected student representatives have also shared their support and sympathy for staff who are taking action, in line with the official Students' Union position supporting this industrial action. It is likely that a lot of you who have not contacted me will have the same concerns and questions, since, even though the majority of staff are not participating in strike action and most students are not affected directly, the dispute is visible around campus and is something that a lot of students care about. Because of that, I thought it would be useful to extend this conversation to the whole student community. Perhaps the most important thing for me to say first is that I understand why some staff feel so strongly about these issues that they are striking and why a lot of students support them. Many of us in the sector agree that salaries need to improve and that the proposed increases to the USS pension scheme are largely unaffordable.