By the fantastic rockers Too Scared to Rock the Boat. Sing along to the link below.
When I’m at work all day I’ll go to a meeting
We’re under review our jobs are at risk may get the sack
Teaching’s okay my feedback is good I’ll be all right
Get somebody else as for myself I’ll stay on my back
Roll over lay down it won’t happen to me
Roll over they won’t sack me you’ll see
Roll over lay down it won’t happen to me
Roll over lay down
When I’m at work I’ll have that one-to-one meeting
Show them my skills, a list of my scores in their hand
Maybe I’ll bang my head on the table
Or run out the door bury my head in the sand
Roll over lay down I got no clout
Roll over gonna help the bosses out
Roll over lay down I got no clout
Roll over lay down
When I’m at work don’t think much of my colleagues
Keep my head down keep my mouth shut as before
Later at night drink myself under the table
Reckon I’ll lay back down on the floor
Roll over lay down the UCU
Roll over they’re a foreign country too
Roll over lay down the UCU
Roll over lay down
Well put Dissenter, it just about sums the place up and the anguish that remaining staff must sadly be enduring.
I do not know why good academics remain in such third-rate institutions (the former polytechnics especially, but increasingly the redbricks and Russell Group universities).
Why endure all of the associated stress: tick-box metric mentality, the incessant focus on teaching (NSS and league tables) in place of knowledge generation (a University’s traditional aim) and research (which when generated, informs teaching and adds real value to the piece of paper awarded to each graduate) and the now prevalent culture of bullying, harassment, and the threat of redundancy.
The vast majority of UK universities are simply no longer good places to be employed at. Perhaps if good academics were to leave en masse and set up their own businesses, the sector would finally get the metaphorical kick up the backside it needs and reform itself for the better.