There was an interesting article in the news last week about pay rates within the university sector.
We learnt that vice-chancellors at UK universities received average salary packages of £272,000 last year, marking an increase of £12,000 on the previous year. We also learnt that thousands of pounds more were spent on hotel accommodation and flights for vice-chancellors, with 50 per cent of flights being either first or business class.
The justification? 'The salaries of university leaders in the UK are ... comparable to similarly sized public and private organisations,' according to Universities UK.
Fair enough, you might think. But hang on a minute. What about those working at lower levels in UK universities? They certainly do not receive salaries comparable to people working in similar roles in the private sector. When entering the university sector, you do so in full knowledge of the fact that your salary will be lower than those working in similar roles in other sectors. It's just part of the deal. And there is absolutely no question that you will travel anything other than economy class, wherever you go -- assuming that your department has the budget for you to travel anywhere at all, that is.
A spokesperson for the University of Oxford said: '[the University's] research output is vast, it has more than £1bn a year in turnover, not including the colleges and Oxford University Press, and it has great institutional complexity. The vice-chancellor's salary reflects that.'
All of this is true, but it is no justification for the VC earning so much more than the University's other employees. After all, all of these people need to navigate the institution's complexity in order to do their jobs. And, let's face it, it's not the VC who brings in the research income or balances the University's books -- it's all those hard-working academics and administrators who are committed to their jobs, despite their pay being (often much) less than those working at a similar level in other sectors.
I am a creature of habit when it comes to clothes shopping. Once I've found a shop or product that I like, I stick with it. I don't enjoy searching for clothes, so this is a good solution for me.
However, what this means is that, when things change, I find myself rather at sea. Years ago, I used to buy work clothes from Laura Ashley, but then our local branch closed, and I had to find something else. I liked the Per Una label at M&S while it lasted, but after a few years it all but disappeared. My local branch of Monsoon closed recently, giving me yet fewer options for clothes shopping.
And now the same thing has happened with underwear. The only bras that you seem able to buy these days are like armour -- underwired, padded, moulded, you name it... Whatever happened to nice, soft, comfortable underwear? Surely I'm not the only person who thinks like this?!
Like many parents, I can’t believe how fast my
children are growing up. Remember how, when they were babies, everyone
said: ‘Enjoy it while you can – they grow up so quickly!’ You don’t
believe it at the time, of course, when you simply
can’t see beyond the feeding and the nappies and the nights…
But, I can testify that it really does go
fast. And this was brought home to me with a bang this week when I
attended my eldest’s GCSE information evening. She makes her GCSE
choices in just a few weeks’ time – how on earth did that
happen?! I then did a quick calculation and realised that she would be
leaving home in just over four years, which is simply stunning.
In
another two years, both my children will have left home and my husband
and I will have to find new (or rediscover old)
ways of filling our time. By then, we will both be in our fifties –
something else which I find very hard to believe…
We took advantage of the good weather last weekend
by visiting Newbury for a family shopping trip. We had been there years
ago but couldn't really remember it at all. We were pleasantly
surprised.
There is a new, open air shopping area in the
centre of town, which is very pleasant. We visited John Lewis (very
useful), New Look (for the kids), Marks and Spencer (useful again) and
Waterstones (looking to spend our Christmas book tokens).
All of these are staple shops, of course, but they weren't too busy or
crowded, which made the shopping experience much less stressful than
usual. The modern, ‘industrial look’ architecture was also easy on the
eye, making the shops seem unusually spacious
and clutter free.
We had lunch in the Waterstone’s Café, which was a
good experience. Very friendly staff and locally sourced food, which is
always a bonus. Again, there were just a few tables and it wasn’t too
crowded, which meant that we were able to enjoy
a relaxed lunch. There was also a very nice-looking Paul up the road
(with café prices that weren't too steep), but that unfortunately was
full, so we couldn't give it a try.
On the way back to the car, we had a quick wander
round the older parts of the town. The town hall looked interesting, as
did the church and riverside walk. We didn't have time to explore these
places, but I think we might plan another
trip to Newbury in the near future, this time focussing on its history
and culture.
My family and I had a lovely Christmas break -- almost two weeks with no work and lots of time just to enjoy ourselves. But that seems plenty and, in some ways, almost too much. There's a danger with having a block of time off work -- that you find you don't want to go back. If you're in non-holiday mode, accustomed to the rhythm of work, then you don't really think about what you're doing, you just carry on as usual. But if you fall out of the habit, then it's hard to get back in to it. And the more you think about returning to it, the less appealing it becomes.
So, perversely, I feel rather relieved to be returning to work (even though I'm not looking forward to it much at all). After all, I know that it'll be much more enjoyable when I'm actually doing it!
There's something strangely surreal about holiday time. And there's something to be said for the routine and banality of everyday working life.
I recently finished reading 'Life after Life' by Kate Atkinson, which I really enjoyed and highly recommend. It centres on a character called Ursula, who is born in England in 1910. The key premise is really that there are different courses that our lives might take, dependent on what happens at particular points in time. This might sound like a truism, but in Ursula's case, we see her life pan out in multiple ways, multiple times. In one version of her life, she dies at birth, the umbilical cord strangling her with the midwife stuck in snow and so unable to attend. In another, she survives infancy, only to die falling from a window in pursuit of a doll that her brother has thrown out. In another she she meets and marries an abusive man, who eventually kills her. In yet another she doesn't meet this man, but works as an air raid warden during the second world war and is killed by a falling bomb. And so on.
The story is intricate, remarkably clever and makes you think. What happens in one's life really is, to a large extent, a matter of fate, no matter how much control we may feel we have over events. In addition, the story paints a vivid and fascinating picture of what it was like to live through the second world war.
'Life after Life' was published in 2013, so I have come to read it a bit late. But this is because I picked the book up second hand in Oxfam. I have recently discovered the joy of books on sale in charity shops. I love reading and I like to own my own copies, but with most books priced at around £8 now, this can sometimes be hard to justify. I was in Oxfam buying Christmas wrapping paper the other day and by chance went across to browse the books. I came away with three for less that £6, all of which were good reads. So, I'm now a second hand book convert!
We have been doing a lot of Agatha Christie recently.
We suddenly realised that we have a whole load of Agatha Christie TV adaptations recorded (over 30 in total!) which we haven't yet watched, so we have started ploughing through those. We watched both 'A Pocketful of Rye' and 'Murder is Easy' this weekend.
And then on Saturday we went to see 'The Mousetrap' at the St. Martin's Theatre. My husband and I saw this production a couple of years ago (albeit with a different cast) but the grandparents had been looking for a family show to take us and the children to and thought that this would be a good one. And it was -- rather overacted, but all good fun. A clever twist at the end, a beautiful set and everyone enjoyed themselves. What more could you want?
We're planning to watch the new TV adaptation of 'And Then There Were None' over the Christmas period. I gather that this may be rather different -- an altogether scarier adaptation than usual.
Perhaps I'll start re-reading all the books, as well. I read most of them as a teenager, but haven't picked one up in the last thirty years or so. Not terribly sophisticated, but highly entertaining -- and even more widely read than the Bible, I hear!
