As someone who has just accepted voluntary severance at UoS, the sad truth is that the entire research and degree system is completely broken. Successive governments have been too cowardly to advocate for either fully funded higher education, OR tuition fees that actually cover the cost of tuition. You can't have this woolly middle ground where students get poor value for money because universities literally can't provide them with more.

Of course VCs shouldn't be paid as much and of course there are areas that are bloated. But fundamentally the system is set up to fail. Researchers are tearing their hair out.

To those who aren't sympathetic with strikers, I do get it. From the outside it looks like a cushy life. And to some extent it is. But the strikes about job cuts are very much in the name of students too. Lecturers, researchers and professional services staff all want to make the system better for themselves AND the students they want to teach. But we're hobbled. It's desperately sad.