GMIT lecturers set to strike over conditions

Lecturers at GMIT are to strike on Wednesday in the first step in a campaign of industrial unrest over what they deem crisis issues in the sector.

Institute of Technology academic staff represented by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) will picket the institute on the Dublin Road after members voted in a national ballot by a margin of 92% in favour of industrial action.

Key concerns include chronic underfunding of the sector, a 32% rise in student numbers while lecturer numbers have fallen by 10% and the precarious employment status of many lecturers.

The union is urging the Department of Education and Skills to meaningfully engage with them and to urgently address the issues.

TUI President Gerry Quinn said lecturers at the institutes see first-hand the damage that an era of austerity cuts wreaks on the student experience of higher education.

Funding was cut by 35% (€190m) between 2008 and 2015. Over the same time period, student numbers rose by a staggering (32%) 21,411 while lecturer numbers actually fell by 9.5% (535).

“This has had a direct, detrimental effect on the quality of service to students and the working conditions of academics.”

While the jump in numbers attending third level education is welcome, the complete failure to provide appropriate funding and to maintain appropriate staffing levels is having a direct, negative impact on the student experience of higher education, he insisted.

“Students now experience larger class sizes, less access to laboratories and libraries and sharp cuts to tutorials and other student supports. Meanwhile, lecturer workload has increased significantly and intolerably in recent years.”

He pointed to the findings of a survey carried out by TUI last April which showed that lecturers are experiencing high levels of work related stress as a result of cutbacks and rationalisation measures.

“In the absence of any move towards remedying this unacceptable situation, academic staff in the institutes have been left with no option but to take strike action.”

The union also opposes the Government’s decision to press ahead with the Technological Universities Bill, which they say will effect huge change without full commitment to proper resourcing.

“The requirement that Institutes of Technology must merge before they can apply for Technological University status is more related to rationalisation of the sector than to any academic considerations based on the particular missions, values and ethos of particular institutes,” said Mr Quinn.

“‘We remain gravely concerned about the potential consequences of this Bill given the current crisis of underfunding, understaffing and precarious employment in the institutes.”

The industrial unrest will do nothing alleviate the college’s student experience with a recent report showing GMIT has one of the highest student drop-out rates of all Institutes of Technology in the country.   The Higher Education Authority (HEA) study of progression in Irish higher education between 2012 and 2014 showed the college had a 43% drop-out rate for higher certificate level courses, second only to Tralee IT (44%); a 33% drop-out rate for ordinary degree courses, the highest for ITs; and a rate of 26% for honours degree courses, the highest in the country.

GMIT President Fergal Barry, however, insisted that about one in five students leave before qualifying and the figures were skewed by a number of courses with just a handful of students.