London university is first to ‘turn students into spies’

A prestigious London university has become the first in the country to use a “student snitch form” to encourage students to report striking staff, while threatening to dock full pay for 39 days if those named fail to reschedule missed teaching, writes Anna Fazackerley for The Guardian.

Queen Mary University of London was branded the “worst university employer in the UK” by the Universities and Colleges Union last July, after it deducted 21 days of full pay from more than 100 staff who refused to mark students’ work in June as part of a national boycott. But staff claim the university, a member of the esteemed Russell Group, has reached a new low and “destroyed trust” by “turning students into spies” to gather data on who went on strike in November and February, and which classes have not been rescheduled.

Laleh Khalili, a professor of international politics at the university, posted her angry resignation letter on Twitter at the end of last month, claiming senior management had made academics’ working lives “unbearably difficult”. She said the “odious” student reporting form, which is being called the “student snitch form” by union members, was “the last straw”.
Full report on The Guardian site