SOAS TA Dispute

This petition will be presented to the SOAS administration demanding that the School solve the dispute with the tutors immediately (for background on the dispute see below). The students, the education environment and the academic experience in general are greatly affected by the Schools handling of its dispute with the tutors. Students have a right to have tutors who can reply to our e-mails, hold office hours and who feel appreciated for the important job that they do. The relationship between students and tutors is of a special nature as tutors have the chance to work closely with students making the student comfortable enough to turn to them for assistance, more so than with lecturers. By requesting tutors not to answer students e-mails and not to talk to students outside tutorials, the School is creating a very uncomfortable environment for everyone involved.

We specifically request the following:

1. That the tutors be remunerated fairly for their job
2. That the School acknowledges the fact that tutor/student relationship requires more work, e-mail correspondence and office hours
3. That there should be no discrimination between tutors with big classes and tutors with smaller classes
4. That the School acknowledges the fact that it is our right as student to receive quality education in return for the fees we pay

BACKGROUND: Statement by SOAS Tutors on Office Hours, 3 October 2009

Over the past few years, negotiations have been conducted between tutors, the School management, and the university staff union (UCU). One cause of long-standing contention between the School and tutors is the issue of office hours (in this context office hours refers to academic contact in any form, whether by e-mail, phone or in person, outside of tutorials, regardless of whether this contact is organised in the form of a scheduled office hour).

Currently, the School operates a multiplier system, whereby all tutors get a fixed mark-up on their hourly pay, which is to cover all their teaching-related work outside the classroom, such as preparation, course administration, essay marking, etc.

The tutors have repeatedly shown that this is insufficient to also cover office hours as described above. Any work of this type was therefore carried out essentially on a voluntary basis. We share the position of students and convenors that these activities represent a significant contribution to the schools learning and teaching environment and are a necessary component of the academic experience for students. For these reasons, tutors continued to carry out this work on an unpaid basis, pending the successful outcome of negotiations.

This week, the School closed down negotiations as unsuccessful and issued a statement containing the Schools final position on Office Hours. It states:

That the responsibility for holding additional office hours to deal with student enquiries (additional, that is, to the time spent at the beginning and end of any teaching session) lies with the Convenor of each course. [...] All other teaching fellows or teaching assistants [...] will NOT be expected to hold additional office hours. They will, of course, be able to deal with some enquiries at the period of the tutorial in addition to any activities that are scheduled to occur during the tutorial

This implies that tutors are not expected by the School to have any contact with students outside scheduled tutorial hours. While disagreeing, in the strongest possible terms, with the Schools position, the tutors have come to the conclusion that very regrettably the only possible course of action is to fully comply with the Schools interpretation of the role of tutor. This means that, from this point on, tutors will have to refuse any contact with students outside of scheduled tutorials.

All enquiries received by tutors will be referred immediately to course convenors, as recommended by the School. It is clear that the consequences will be detrimental to both students and course convenors. Students will not receive any advice from their tutors outside tutorials, while convenors will receive an increased number of enquiries, affecting their workload significantly.

The Schools position that such queries should be dealt with by tutors at the beginning and end of any teaching session is clearly nonsensical. The five-minute periods at the start and end of tutorials are required for moving between rooms, setting out materials required, ensuring rooms are correctly equipped, checking attendance, etc. These periods are clearly insufficient to also accomodate academic and administrative queries from classes of up to fifteen students, as well as ruling out the possibility of confidential discussion of academic work.

We also dispute the Schools claim that this new agreement reflects current practice for the majority of courses.

We, the tutors, believe that our responsibility to students includes contact outside of scheduled tutorials. Due to the Schools actions and its unwillingness to pay for this essential work, we have regretfully concluded that our only option, in line with the official School position, is to cease to continue this contact with students. We acknowledge that this will negatively affect the quality of learning and teaching at the School, and the overall academic experience of both students and teachers. We ask for the understanding and cooperation of the students and the academic body during this time, in the hope that the matter can be resolved as swiftly as possible.

If students have any queries related to the courses they are taking, these should be directed to the course convenor. Any other query or complaint regarding the Schools policy should be directed to the Pro-Directors and/or Faculty Deans. Please do not send complaints of this type to course convenors or heads of departments.