squawk

And, I’m afraid, it is just as wrong a generalisation. The inaccurate stereotype of cushy academic jobs during the pandemic is just that - an inaccurate stereotype - not to mention all the university employees who are required to be on campus.

Without giving away identifiable details, I too know a lot of people who work in universities, and those who have an “easy” pandemic are far outnumbered by those for whom it has been incredibly difficult. Many have been expected to work from home - often without appropriate equipment or access to resources, whilst in some cases simultaneously looking after young children when schools are shut. As for uploading last year’s videos - prior to the pandemic most content by was not recorded (this does varies by institution). All interactive sessions - seminars, workshops, labs - have had to be redesigned for online delivery. I have some professional experience of both in person and remote teaching, and you can’t simply reuse existing material. Then there’s the time and energy spent running live online sessions - as you would in person. That doesn’t magically vanish because you’re doing it remotely.

Postgraduate researchers, who are not employees and therefore have no employment rights whatsoever, have often had it even worse: I know several who weren’t able to access specialised equipment/software for many months (eg being told they couldn’t take their work computers home, unlike staff in the same organisation). As for accessing appropriate DSE equipment, forget it. If you’re not an employee, you also can’t be furloughed if you can’t do your job. So what’s happened is that they’ve lost significant time on fixed duration projects upon which their doctorate depends.