Dear University lecturers - get back to work

Dear University lecturers - get back to work

Author
Discussion

crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
sidicks said:
crankedup said:
Do you think that couldn’t very easily be changed. My lads partners brother teaches English in China, they are, as a Nation, very ambitious to attract English teachers.
Not difficult to see how this can be expanded and no doubt will be.
What are his DB pension arrangements?
Haven’t asked him tbh, I can say that he is very highly rewarded in monetary terms together with a high Socieital respect as an educator in general. He certainly hasn’t gone to China for the tea tasting, He comes back to the U.K. for holidays such as Christmas. Travel to China to teach must offer him a reward not found in the U.K. and this is the point I am trying to make. Not everything revolves around a db pension but lack of or dilution will drive academics to look further afield with thier talents.

crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
Rovinghawk said:
crankedup said:
. What really gets my goat is those at the top gorging on money whilst the workers have some crumbs tossed at them. Exaggerated for effect of course.
And yet you seem to be in favour of huge pensions for some, subsidised by many who will themselves be in straitened circumstances.
I favour a more even playing field, I have long argued the situation we have in the U.K. of the wage stagnation on the factory floor, the abuse of self enrichment at the top in an ever increasing two division Society which is widening in terms of wealth. I do not use the term huge pensions in connection with the academics, we need to redfifine values within e Country.
Perhaps the tax implications need to be reconsidered for workers and Corporations.

otherman

2,191 posts

166 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
4x4Tyke said:
It is shocking that so many people can't think this through.
How would you feel is your agreed pension was plundered, you would be pissed.
It is insane that their contracts can respectively rewritten and the public are fine with this.
I think it's shocking that people can't take the time to understand what's happening before saying it's wrong. No pensions are being plundered. No contracts are being re-written. Earned pensions stay earned, it's a proposal for new arrangement going forward. It's a very generous new offer, that would be better than 95% of the working population receive.

Tony427

2,873 posts

234 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
sidicks said:
Tony - you seem very confused about what lauda has actually said. Why are you trying to tell a pension expert about DB pensions, when he clearly knows more than you?

Just because you are intelligent with decent (other) qualifications, doesn’t mean that you know more than a pension expert who has been doing this for 15+ years.

Edited by sidicks on Friday 23 February 13:59
PM sent by way of explanation.

Cheers,

Tony

sidicks

25,218 posts

222 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
Tony427 said:
sidicks said:
Tony - you seem very confused about what lauda has actually said. Why are you trying to tell a pension expert about DB pensions, when he clearly knows more than you?

Just because you are intelligent with decent (other) qualifications, doesn’t mean that you know more than a pension expert who has been doing this for 15+ years.

Edited by sidicks on Friday 23 February 13:59
PM sent by way of explanation.

Cheers,

Tony
Appreciated. Will reply later when I have more time.
beer

MDMetal

2,776 posts

149 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
MDMetal said:
Not sure why people are waffling on about education, universities are businesses pure and simple, education stops at 16/18 anything else is paying a business for a piece of paper. Sooner people stop pretending different the better we'll be. Uni really should go back to being an education but I can't see that genie going back in the bottle now it's out.
Couldn’t disagree more That is a recipe for only the wealthy to benefit leaving behind those without the cash to fund their education, hence the Government loans. The U.K. would waste untapped talent which we cannot afford.
Wrong, your arguing from the mistaken POV that everyone should go to uni, the correct standpoint is that anyone should be able to go, subtle but it's a key difference. Education should be free for those who want/need it, not for everyone. We've diluted the talent we have and the way we teach and train people by pressuring idiots to go to uni and then creating courses that attract idiots to suck up the money that's available. Reduce the requirement to have a degree, reduce the number of courses and spaces back to what's actually useful and then scrap fees. Like I said though that won't happen now uni's see how much money they earn by being a business and increasing the number of students sorry customers they can appeal to.

Murph7355

37,760 posts

257 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
sidicks said:
crankedup said:
Do you think that couldn’t very easily be changed. My lads partners brother teaches English in China, they are, as a Nation, very ambitious to attract English teachers.
Not difficult to see how this can be expanded and no doubt will be.
What are his DB pension arrangements?
Haven’t asked him tbh, I can say that he is very highly rewarded in monetary terms together with a high Socieital respect as an educator in general. He certainly hasn’t gone to China for the tea tasting, He comes back to the U.K. for holidays such as Christmas. Travel to China to teach must offer him a reward not found in the U.K. and this is the point I am trying to make. Not everything revolves around a db pension but lack of or dilution will drive academics to look further afield with thier talents.
crankedup said:
I favour a more even playing field, I have long argued the situation we have in the U.K. of the wage stagnation on the factory floor, the abuse of self enrichment at the top in an ever increasing two division Society which is widening in terms of wealth. I do not use the term huge pensions in connection with the academics, we need to redfifine values within e Country.
Perhaps the tax implications need to be reconsidered for workers and Corporations.
Unless you know the details of his circumstances the comparison is pointless.

- maybe he likes Chinese food?
- maybe he likes the Chinese?
- maybe he would rather be paid 1k more on his basic and no pension?
- maybe he's not qualified to the same job here? Is he TEFL?

You are not about to see 90% of university lecturers moving to Beijing...

Valuing something and being able to afford it are two different things.


crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
sidicks said:
crankedup said:
Then you take actions required to make it so, reducing the reward to staff which are the backbone of this business should be the last area to attack. As always the highly paid at the top escape the wrath of the business accountants.
Are the ‘highly paid at the top’ not subject to the same DB scheme changes?
Depends upon the scheme that they are in, certainly carillion had 13 different schemes running. All in the black hole situation except the Directors scheme, which was in a very nice place financially, no surprise there. Clearly that pot was being well attended whilst the remaining 12 were left in serious problems.

captain_cynic

12,066 posts

96 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
MDMetal said:
crankedup said:
MDMetal said:
Not sure why people are waffling on about education, universities are businesses pure and simple, education stops at 16/18 anything else is paying a business for a piece of paper. Sooner people stop pretending different the better we'll be. Uni really should go back to being an education but I can't see that genie going back in the bottle now it's out.
Couldn’t disagree more That is a recipe for only the wealthy to benefit leaving behind those without the cash to fund their education, hence the Government loans. The U.K. would waste untapped talent which we cannot afford.
Wrong, your arguing from the mistaken POV that everyone should go to uni, the correct standpoint is that anyone should be able to go, subtle but it's a key difference. Education should be free for those who want/need it, not for everyone.
I wouldn't say education should be free, but it should be affordable to everyone who who wants and can qualify for it (in the case of tertiary education).

Hyper expensive education that causes students to go into debt they cant repay (A.K.A the American system) limits the options of students who dont come from a rich family, it's basically enforcing a class system through education. OTOH we don't want to go too far the other way and end up devaluing higher education, basically ending up with a system best described by my favourite Fidel Castro quote "one of the best things about Communism is that even the prostitutes have a degree".

I think the UK needs to do two things.
1. Implement a public loan system for UK citizens that is zero interest (pegged to inflation). The HMRC can automatically start taking repayments after they reach a certain salary (this is like the HECS/HELP scheme from Australia), such a system is almost self sufficient.
2. Introduce a national series of trade schools/collages that teach shorter, more basic, practical courses like electrical/mechanical/building trades, data entry, clerical, hairdressing... I don't want to say it but I'll say it... Jobs you don't go to university for.

crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
Rovinghawk said:
crankedup said:
I agree with the proposal that a ring fenced taxation element should be used for the NHS and I would be in favour of a similar policy proposal that would work in the education establishment.
Imagine you raise an extra billion in tax & specifically ringfence it for NHS. Now imagine that another billion of non-ringfenced funding is pulled from the NHS and pissed up the nearest wall on whatever self-serving scheme is around at the time.

Ringfencing achieves nothing other than helping emotive claims for more money.
I wouldn’t class the NHS or Education requirements emotive situations. They both require further major investing if we wish for these establishments to provide satisfactory services in the future. Funding for staff levels as well as infrastructure. I would suggest that your own issues seem to be emotive reading the posts,
Ring fencing taxation for the purpose of the NHS is gathering momentum apparently and I would certainly cautiously welcome further investigation into the principles of the idea.

Rovinghawk

13,300 posts

159 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
Rovinghawk said:
crankedup said:
. What really gets my goat is those at the top gorging on money whilst the workers have some crumbs tossed at them. Exaggerated for effect of course.
And yet you seem to be in favour of huge pensions for some, subsidised by many who will themselves be in straitened circumstances.
I favour a more even playing field, I have long argued the situation we have in the U.K. of the wage stagnation on the factory floor, the abuse of self enrichment at the top in an ever increasing two division Society which is widening in terms of wealth. I do not use the term huge pensions in connection with the academics, we need to redfifine values within e Country.
You don't want a 2-tier society yet you seem to agree with it on the subject of people on meagre pensions subsidising those on greater. This seems inconsistent. Should there not be better balance between the two?

crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
MDMetal said:
crankedup said:
MDMetal said:
Not sure why people are waffling on about education, universities are businesses pure and simple, education stops at 16/18 anything else is paying a business for a piece of paper. Sooner people stop pretending different the better we'll be. Uni really should go back to being an education but I can't see that genie going back in the bottle now it's out.
Couldn’t disagree more That is a recipe for only the wealthy to benefit leaving behind those without the cash to fund their education, hence the Government loans. The U.K. would waste untapped talent which we cannot afford.
Wrong, your arguing from the mistaken POV that everyone should go to uni, the correct standpoint is that anyone should be able to go, subtle but it's a key difference. Education should be free for those who want/need it, not for everyone. We've diluted the talent we have and the way we teach and train people by pressuring idiots to go to uni and then creating courses that attract idiots to suck up the money that's available. Reduce the requirement to have a degree, reduce the number of courses and spaces back to what's actually useful and then scrap fees. Like I said though that won't happen now uni's see how much money they earn by being a business and increasing the number of students sorry customers they can appeal to.
I have suggested no such thing that I am in favour of everybody should go to uni. I agree that education should be available for all but ini’s should only be offering education that will be of benefit to the Country, not finger nail technology for example.
Uni’s should be funded for those courses identified as ‘worthy’ by the Government. All other courses they wish to run should be funded by the private pocket imo.
I agree with most of your post and feel that you have either misinterpreted or perhaps I could have been clearer in my posts.

sidicks

25,218 posts

222 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
I wouldn’t class the NHS or Education requirements emotive situations. They both require further major investing if we wish for these establishments to provide satisfactory services in the future. Funding for staff levels as well as infrastructure. I would suggest that your own issues seem to be emotive reading the posts,
Ring fencing taxation for the purpose of the NHS is gathering momentum apparently and I would certainly cautiously welcome further investigation into the principles of the idea.
Spending is not the same thing as investment.

sidicks

25,218 posts

222 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
Depends upon the scheme that they are in, certainly carillion had 13 different schemes running. All in the black hole situation except the Directors scheme, which was in a very nice place financially, no surprise there. Clearly that pot was being well attended whilst the remaining 12 were left in serious problems.
What were the nature of the liabilities in each scheme - it is feasible that, due to a different investment policy (due to different liabilities) one scheme might outperform the others.

E.g. if there was more risk taken in the Director’s scheme and equities performed strongly (as they had up until fairly recently). The other schemes might be much more closely matching assets and liabilities - to protect members from further downside - but not benefitting in bullish markets to the same extent.

Presumably some of the schemes would have been inherited from other businesses, so might have been in a poor state when they were taken over?

crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
Murph7355 said:
crankedup said:
sidicks said:
crankedup said:
Do you think that couldn’t very easily be changed. My lads partners brother teaches English in China, they are, as a Nation, very ambitious to attract English teachers.
Not difficult to see how this can be expanded and no doubt will be.
What are his DB pension arrangements?
Haven’t asked him tbh, I can say that he is very highly rewarded in monetary terms together with a high Socieital respect as an educator in general. He certainly hasn’t gone to China for the tea tasting, He comes back to the U.K. for holidays such as Christmas. Travel to China to teach must offer him a reward not found in the U.K. and this is the point I am trying to make. Not everything revolves around a db pension but lack of or dilution will drive academics to look further afield with thier talents.
crankedup said:
I favour a more even playing field, I have long argued the situation we have in the U.K. of the wage stagnation on the factory floor, the abuse of self enrichment at the top in an ever increasing two division Society which is widening in terms of wealth. I do not use the term huge pensions in connection with the academics, we need to redfifine values within e Country.
Perhaps the tax implications need to be reconsidered for workers and Corporations.
Unless you know the details of his circumstances the comparison is pointless.

- maybe he likes Chinese food?
- maybe he likes the Chinese?
- maybe he would rather be paid 1k more on his basic and no pension?
- maybe he's not qualified to the same job here? Is he TEFL?

You are not about to see 90% of university lecturers moving to Beijing...

Valuing something and being able to afford it are two different things.
It’s a case of identifying priorities, just like in most things in life, not simply shrugging the shoulders saying we can’t afford it. Do we value education. I certainly do and this may come as no surprise to you, imo we should fully fund it alongside the NHS.
As for the Chinese example. it’s only an example to bolster my earlier posts. Academics know that it’s a big World.
Yes I intimated that he is earning a decent salary and doesn’t go to China for tea tasting. Also, if you read my posts on the matter, you will note that I also mentioned that I did not know about his pension arrangements.
Chinese food, you ask if he likes it, I can enlighten you, he loves Chinese food and really enjoys the life style on offer over there.


sidicks

25,218 posts

222 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
It’s a case of identifying priorities, just like in most things in life, not simply shrugging the shoulders saying we can’t afford it. Do we value education. I certainly do and this may come as no surprise to you, imo we should fully fund it alongside the NHS.
Where “fully fund” means ignore demographics and economics and retain massive pensions for employees subsidised by the taxpayer, at the expense of actually delivering services?

crankedup said:
As for the Chinese example. it’s only an example to bolster my earlier posts. Academics know that it’s a big World.
Yes I intimated that he is earning a decent salary and doesn’t go to China for tea tasting. Also, if you read my posts on the matter, you will note that I also mentioned that I did not know about his pension arrangements.
Chinese food, you ask if he likes it, I can enlighten you, he loves Chinese food and really enjoys the life style on offer over there.
In summary, “if we don’t provide DB pensions to well-paid academics then (on the basis of 1 friend) they might go to China, where they may or may not be paid well and where they don’t have a DB pension either.”


Edited by sidicks on Friday 23 February 16:13

crankedup

25,764 posts

244 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
sidicks said:
crankedup said:
Depends upon the scheme that they are in, certainly carillion had 13 different schemes running. All in the black hole situation except the Directors scheme, which was in a very nice place financially, no surprise there. Clearly that pot was being well attended whilst the remaining 12 were left in serious problems.
What were the nature of the liabilities in each scheme - it is feasible that, due to a different investment policy (due to different liabilities) one scheme might outperform the others.

E.g. if there was more risk taken in the Director’s scheme and equities performed strongly (as they had up until fairly recently). The other schemes might be much more closely matching assets and liabilities - to protect members from further downside - but not benefitting in bullish markets to the same extent.

Presumably some of the schemes would have been inherited from other businesses, so might have been in a poor state when they were taken over?
Would expect that full details will become available in due course, it doesn’t look good though on the face of matters. 12 workers pensions in black holes and the one shining example just happens to be the Directors pension pot. Meanwhile the stench of self preservation and greed above all else pervades imo.

Red 4

10,744 posts

188 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
sidicks said:
Where “fully fund” means ignore demographics and economics and retain massive pensions for employees subsidised by the taxpayer, at the expense of actually delivering services?
Jeez, you've been on about public sector pensions for 2 days solid now.

Do yourself a favour - give yourself a break; go out for a bit, do something (anything) else - just step away from your keyboard.

Or the men in white coats (with massive taxpayer funded public sector pensions) will come for you.

I doubt they'll listen to you either.

sidicks

25,218 posts

222 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
Red 4 said:
Jeez, you've been on about public sector pensions for 2 days solid now.

Do yourself a favour - give yourself a break; go out for a bit, do something (anything) else - just step away from your keyboard.

Or the men in white coats (with massive taxpayer funded public sector pensions) will come for you.

I doubt they'll listen to you either.
Oh look, a stalker!!

This a thread about public sector pensions, if you don’t have anything to add then suggest you
‘go away’.

Edited by sidicks on Friday 23 February 16:35

sidicks

25,218 posts

222 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
quotequote all
crankedup said:
Would expect that full details will become available in due course, it doesn’t look good though on the face of matters. 12 workers pensions in black holes and the one shining example just happens to be the Directors pension pot. Meanwhile the stench of self preservation and greed above all else pervades imo.
Agreed