On Thursday 22nd February representatives of the Cambridge UCU Justice 4 College Supervisors (J4CS) campaign met with representatives of the Colleges, University, and the Office of Intercollegiate Services (OIS).

Present at that meeting:

Cambridge UCU: Lydia Richards (UCU regional official), Matthew Lloyd Roberts (UCU Postgraduate Rep), Emily Sandford (UCU Casualisation Rep), Ali Suriel (PhD candidate).

Colleges, University and OIS:
Richard Anthony (Chair, Bursars’ Committee), Judith Bunbury (Associate Secretary, Senior Tutors’ Committee), Malcolm Millbrook (Deputy Head of OIS), Bhaskar Vira (Pro VC for Education).

 

 

We discussed the Undergraduate Supervisor Workload Survey, which has now closed to responses. Both sides concur that the Survey has produced an extremely robust dataset, with a 33.2% response rate and statistically significant responses in every subcategory. This group is thankful to the many supervisors who took the time to fill out the survey and we are also thankful for the hard work of Malcolm Millbrook in facilitating it.

 

An early draft of the Survey Report has been reviewed and developed with input from both sides. A preliminary draft will be published in due course, with a further report to follow making use of the qualitative data provided by survey respondents. The results of the Survey have an immediate relevance to the work of this group on supervisor working conditions, but this high-quality data will also be of interest and value to the wider collegiate university and the Teaching Review.

 

This meeting also included feedback from the Extraordinary Joint Meeting of the Bursars’ Business Committee and the Senior Tutors’ Business Committee and subsequent meetings of both committees. J4CS submitted documentation pertaining to the work of this group which was considered and discussed. New university guidelines on teaching were approved by the Senior Tutors and will be disseminated via the Teaching Review for feedback from stakeholders in departments and faculties before the start of Easter Term.

 

We discussed the methodology for a new supervisor payment rate intended to be in place for Michaelmas 2024. We anticipate further concrete discussions on pay in our next meeting on the 6^th March following the Bursars’ Committee meeting on the 29^th February.

 

The Programme of Work for these ongoing discussions had a preliminary deadline of 8^th March for agreement on a pay proposal. This group agrees on the importance of the Programme of Work for guiding these discussions, but also understands that some flexibility is required to enable constructive discussions, in which we continue to engage.