SOAS tutors fighting against casualisation

Last October SOAS Tutors (GTAs and TFs) published a report on their pay and working conditions, drawing on the results of a marking survey and outreach to Tutors across SOAS. Results of the report were damning with the authors finding in particular:

A pay gap of 48% for the same work at SOAS compared to KCL.

Inadequate time allocation for marking, with a 3,000 word essay having a marking allocation of 24 minutes compared to 1 hour at UCL & KCL.

Rapid increases in class sizes over the past years, with tutorial classes of over 30 students now being commonplace in several departments.

Consistent contracting failures over many years – which were particularly bad this academic year – resulting in many Tutors working for months without receiving contracts or pay.

You are recommended to read the summary of our proposals for a complete overview: bit.ly/40OBBTB.

Our report was shared with the UCU branch in November, and the branch voted near-unanimously during the branch meeting on November 20th in favour of a motion to support its findings and endorse its proposals. This motion, among other things, called upon the employer to respond to every one of the specific issues raised within the report before the end of term 1.

Following this, these proposals were shared with the employer who agreed to set up a working group to address the findings within the report. As of today this working group has met three times. While management did agree to reform elements of the GTA/TF recruitment process, as well as to implement paid inductions for staff, they offered no guarantees on the three major issues. On improving pay, they refused to negotiate on the teaching multiplier and offered no concrete assurances, nor a timeline for redressing the marking rate; and on issues of class sizes and contract duration they stated that they were not willing to negotiate at all.

Tutors across SOAS believe this response is wholly inadequate and in places, frankly, insulting. In their official response letter to the proposals, the employer referred to Tutor jobs as “the GTA scheme”, with the implication being that GTAs and TFs are trainees rather than employees who do essential work which helps the university function. Moreover, the official response letter made no mention of Teaching Fellows (TFs), completely bypassing this major portion of the Tutor workforce. In the light of this, Tutors have organised together under the “SOAS Tutors 4 Change” movement to demand reform to the employment practices at SOAS. As management has made it clear that they will not negotiate in good faith on the main issues, we have been left with no choice but to take action.

As of 28 February 2025, all GTA/TFs across SOAS have been called upon to only carry out their contracted responsibilities. To be clear, this action involves working to contract. Tutors will be refusing to undertake work outside of our contracts, which includes all marking responsibilities, which do not form a part of the GTA/TF contract. Currently, this will impact over 4000 assessments, although we expect this number to increase in the near future. We are calling upon management to urgently negotiate in good faith on our proposals in order to address the issues and halt this action.

We do not want to take this action and strongly believe in the importance of Tutors marking the work of the students whom they have taught. However, we feel we have been left with no alternative. Within the current contractual arrangement, we are already unable to provide adequate feedback to students within the time we are allocated for marking.

It is important to emphasise that SOAS management can minimise the disruption to academic life at SOAS by negotiating in good faith and guaranteeing serious improvements in pay and working conditions in line with our proposals before the end of term. The ball is firmly in their court.

As most tutors are in extremely precarious positions, we are raising a support fund so we can continue fighting. Your donation will help tutors who refuse to mark assessments to cover the loss of expected income, until we see concrete change in our pay and working conditions.

​In solidarity,

SOAS Tutors 4 Change