NUI Galway accused of ‘exploiting’ postgrad students

Postgraduate students at NUIG have said they will refuse to perform unpaid teaching, in the latest escalation of an ongoing dispute over pay.

Around 140 mostly PhD researchers, and some lecturers, from the Postgraduate Workers Alliance (PWA), have told university president Prof Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, that they will not carry out any work, “which is not remunerated at the existing collectively bargained rate”.

In a letter to the NUIG head, and copied to Minister for Higher and Further Education, Simon Harris, the postgrad workers said concerns they raised earlier this year have not been adequately dealt with.

“We have no option but to make it clear that we do not recognise any expectation of unpaid work as legitimate,” they said.

More than 400 people signed an online petition earlier this year expressing concern over the “unfair working environment” at NUIG, and the “continued exploitation” postgraduates and researchers.

At the time they highlighted concerns about the tendency to rely on precarious and often unpaid work by PhD students, “to cover ever more diverse teaching needs across the university”.

In the latest letter highlighting their concerns, the PWA said: “The arrangements whereby postgraduates carry out teaching or related academic duties is exploitative and unjust during ‘normal’ times, and this unfairness is even more palpable, given postgraduates are now expected to carry out these duties on the front lines of a global pandemic.”

Describing postgraduates as ‘valuable and valued members of the university community’, NUIG said it was working to address their concerns, at an institutional and sectoral level.

It pointed out that the National Framework for Doctoral Education agreed nationally, acknowledges that the skills developed through doctoral education should “relate both to the research process itself and to broader professional training and development”.

“The core component of our research programmes is the advancement of knowledge through original research. Contributing to teaching is also an integral part of the training of a research Master’s or PhD student. It assists in the acquisition of generic and transferable skills and is the norm in the sector,” a spokesperson said.

Responsibility for teaching contribution allocation across NUIG is devolved to the teaching unit, usually at school level.

And normally all PhD students make contributions of a maximum of 120 hours a year – approximately five hours per week over 24 weeks over three academic years.

NUIG added: “During the period of Covid restrictions, no research supervisor or line manager will be expected to impel a research student to undertake an on-campus teaching contribution.

“If a research student is not in a position to undertake an on-campus teaching contribution, they may be allocated alternate forms of teaching contribution. Research student funding, through award of a scholarship stipend, does not, in NUIG or elsewhere, imply a contract of employment. The purpose of scholarship funding is to provide financial support to the students during their research degree.”