The impact of staff strikes on students

Receiving the confirmation letter for my post graduate studies at the University of East Anglia, was a pivotal moment in my life. I was thrilled to embark on an academic journey in a foreign country, where I could interact with students from various cultures and experience top-notch teaching. My adventure kicked off on the 29th September 2022, with a warm welcome from our department, where we connected with professors and other students who were eager to share their knowledge with us throughout the year.

However, industrial strikes soon threatened the completion of my master's degree. Lecturers at universities across the UK planned a series of strike action to intensify their demands for a reverse to the reduced pensions, pay inequalities, and zero-hour contracts among other issues.

During my first term I was sent numerous emails regarding potential strikes and our professors cancelled various lectures and seminars. The effort to minimise the impact was not uniform with some lecturers providing the missed lecture notes while others did not.

Due to the strikes, I lost valuable teaching hours and missed out on important topics.  Instead, I resorted to relying on self-study to catch up. This made it challenging to understand the materials as I felt that I lacked adequate instruction.

The university has attempted to compensate by assuring us of adjustments to assessments and exams but there is no getting away from the negative impact of the lack of feedback on our assessments. For example, most professors were supposed to give feedback on our essay writing before submission at the end of the term.  However, due to the strikes, this was not provided, causing students to miss out on important information.

Less spoken about, but just as important, is that with fewer teaching and seminar hours, there is little opportunity for interaction with fellow students. Classroom discussions provide valuable insights into how others respond to the issues that our studies tackle.  It is undeniable that my learning experience has suffered from not having as many opportunities to engage with others in this way.

The limited contact among students caused me stress and anxiety due to feelings of isolation too.

As a student, I feel torn.  Supporting staff welfare is important to me but this collides with an acknowledgement that my present losses are affecting my future.