10 September 2023
Do your duty: stop punishing our teachers, let us study!

Dear Professor Sir Gerry McCormac,

Teaching staff are the backbone of our University and dedicate their working lives to supporting us, ensuring we can get the best out of our time studying.

I am shocked by the fact that the University of Stirling has been deducting 50% of our teachers’ wages since 01/06/23 for each working day they have been participating in their union’s national Marking and Assessment Boycott to defend our own learning conditions.

This means the average teacher who took action would have lost more than £4000 in pay until 22nd August, often for refusing to mark a couple of assignments. Other universities in Scotland have acknowledged how grossly unfair these deductions were and capped maximum deductions. You are still refusing to do so, even though our teachers have been carrying out all of their other duties, researching, teaching, and assisting us as they always have done.

We believe this is disproportionate to the actual work university staff have refused to do during this time. Other universities such as Glasgow and St Andrews have reimbursed lost pay in recognition of the punitive nature of these deductions. Now, your refusal to consider similar agreements means that there will be further disruptions to the start of term – what should be an exciting time for us – with two more weeks of strikes which could have been avoided by a local deal.

This smacks of vindictive behaviour, and it is a poor use of our University's time and resources. There is very little support for these extreme actions, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.

I am urging you to retroactively cap those punitive deductions, and allow our teachers to get back to doing their jobs and helping us flourish.

Yours sincerely

539
signatures
411 verified
  1. Charlie Britten, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  2. Eliot Sherwin, Student, Stirling
  3. Toby Wordie, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  4. Joe Roach, student, University of Stirling
  5. Aaron Caulfield, Chairman, Stirling University Labour Society, Stirling
  6. Freddie Bruun Petersen, Care worker, Student, Stirling
  7. Imogen Robertson, Student/Community Organiser, Vegan and Rights for Animals Society, Stirling
  8. Patrick Whittam, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  9. Iona Donald, Student, University of Stirling, Glasgow
  10. Josh Parsonage, Student, Uni of Stirling, Stirling
  11. Carys McKinney, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  12. Jenna Maitland, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  13. Alice Robertson, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  14. Maria crossan, University of Stirling, Motherwell
  15. Amy Peattie, Student, University of Stirling, Kirkcaldy
  16. Sammy Berninger, Student, University of Stirling
  17. Jordan McKee, Student, Stirling
  18. Hannah Chalmers, Student, University of Stirling, Cumbernauld, Glasgow
  19. Mia McCulloch, Student, Student body, Stirling
  20. Mark Cattigan, Student, Stirling
...
371 more
verified signatures
  1. Patrick Brown, Student, Stirling
  2. Megan Addison, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  3. Chloe Morrison, Student, Stirling Uni, Stirling
  4. Daniel McCole, Student, Stirling
  5. Chi-yin Hung, Doctoral Student, University of Stirling, Oxford
  6. kirstin lyle, Student, Stirling University, Stirling
  7. Laila Hisham Anter Faried, Stirling
  8. Rebecca Hamilton, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  9. Sera Cakir, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  10. Diana Nnamani, Student, [email protected], University of Stirlingg
  11. simone, student, uni of stirling, falkirk
  12. Jasmine Cryer, Student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  13. Lynsay sands, Student, University of stirling, Stirling
  14. Adam, Software Engineer, Stirling
  15. Christy Fairgrieve, student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  16. Matthew Nelson, student, University of Stirling, Stirling
  17. Palvi Shah, Student, University Of Stirling, Stirling
  18. anonymous
  19. Ellie Foster, Student, University of Stirling, Livingston
  20. Greg Murray, Student, Stirling
Create an open letter
and sign it together
Terms of Service