As Strikes Begin,

Lecturer Quits to Become Plumber

As universities began a week of strikes over pay yesterday, a molecular biologist announced that he was quitting his lab for a new career as a plumber.

The Association of University Teachers, the lecturers’ union, claims he is not alone: a second academic is throwing up her job to train greyhounds and a third is moving to Canada with no job arranged.

Karl Gensberg, a post-doctoral researcher who has had short-term contracts at the University of Birmingham, will begin his new career in the summer after completing a plumbing course at Sutton Coldfield College. “I was chatting to the plumber who came to fit my new boiler,” he said. “He remarked that, because I had a PhD, I must be earning lots of money. I had my pay slip on me and when I showed it to him, he said, ‘I earn twice that.’” Dr Gensberg, 41, has had a 13-year academic career and earns £23,000 a year.

“I expect that when I’m fully qualified as a plumber I will be earning much more,” he added. “But I won’t have to figure out how to find funding, nor will I have to face a wall of bureaucracy.” His present contract ends in April and Dr Gensberg says the university has emailed him to ask if he would return to the campus to do plumbing work. “By this time, I was hoping I would have had a permanent contract. Without that, you cannot do your own research because it is almost impossible to raise funding.” If he could have found research money, Dr Gensberg would have explored his interest in electro-magnetic fields and their effects on human cells.

Wendy Richards, a lecturer in industrial relations who earns about £34,000 a year, is quitting the University of Keele after 16 years for a new life in Canada. “I have had enough of a 50-hour week and weekend working. My frustration has been building up over the last three or four years because the workload has got so much heavier. I like running my course but what I hate is bureaucracy.”

An academic working in the social science department of a northern university said she intended to rear racing greyhounds. “They say the only way to make a fortune in greyhound breeding is to start with a fortune. But the only way to make a fortune as an academic is to leave.” She added that she could end up earning a vice-chancellor’s salary.

“Some of our members are so desperate to escape that they are giving up higher education and going to work in fields which are completely unrelated and which do not have the same social standard,” said an AUT spokesman.

(From ‘The Guardian’, abridged)

Role play. You have been invited to the Association of University Teachers to discuss the situation at British universities. Now you are taking part in a preliminary discussion in the office of the head of the Association. While getting ready to play your roles think how to make your speech more emphatic. (It would be better if you wrote down some of the sentences you could use in your presentation in class.)

Role 1. You are Robert(a) Kliff, head of the Association of University Teachers. Introduce the participants of the meeting and explain why each of them has been invited. Emphasize the gravity of the financial situation at British universities.

Role 2. You are Mr (Ms) Clydon, a representative of the education minister. You are greatly concerned about the situation at British higher educational institutions. Your task is to find ways to stop braindrain from the UK. Talk to the participants of the meeting and try to persuade them to give up the idea of changing a career.

Role 3. You are Karl Gensberg, a post-doctoral researcher. Describe your situation to the participants of the meeting stressing the significance of your research. (It could be of vital importance for cancer research, by the way.) Remember that you feel quite sore.

Role 4. You are Wendy Richards, PhD, a lecturer in industrial relations at the University of Keele. You are a single mother with two children. You are moving to Canada as you don’t see how you could raise two children in Britain earning £34,000 a year.