Students, says Harvi Chera, a second year undergraduate at University College London, “are the academics of the future”. Why, he asks, “shouldn’t universities be democratically run by the people who are educating and the people who are learning?”
This question defines the debate prompted by the recent wave of strikes in academia. Lecturers and professional staff at 61 universities across the UK have undertaken the largest industrial action in the University and College Union’s history. UCU and Universities UK, which represents vice chancellors, failed to reach an agreement last month over proposed cuts to academics’ pensions (which the union estimates would reduce payouts by up to 40 per cent).
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