‘The Super Exploitation of the Cheapest Possible Workforce’: The Hidden Cost of University Funding Cuts

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London) is facing a PR controversy after expelling a pro-Palestine student activist over a video. But I want to focus on a less-publicised struggle at the London university because it’s quietly enlightening about the forces fragmenting our society, and it hasn’t been told elsewhere.

Junior staff are refusing to mark students’ work. A letter signed by 100 employees and 200 students accuses the university of unacceptable working conditions for tutors (formally called ‘Graduate Teaching Assistants’). It cites “systematic underpaying” and claims “most of us are expected to work without contracts”.

SOAS has a unique focus, and it’s not just geographic. Ranking third in the world for global development, it is known for a decolonial, anti-injustice approach that centres Global South and under-heard perspectives.

Such an environment does not breed quiet compliance. “We learn one thing in class, and then the administration does the exact opposite!” noted one of the 200 students to sign in support, speaking on condition of anonymity because “we’re all afraid of being deported”.

Tutors are mostly PhD students hired on short-term contracts for which they must reapply each year. Their refusal to mark isn’t technically a strike, because the work they’re refusing to do isn’t work they’re contracted to do, but additional work they’re expected to do if they want to hold onto competitive, unstable contracts.

“Ultimately, it is the super exploitation of the cheapest possible workforce,” said Hwanhee Bae, who taught SOAS’ microeconomics analysis module for three years.

What marking may be lacking in remuneration, it supposedly makes up for in ‘experience’ for early-career tutors. But the workload is piling up as universities squeeze in more fee-paying students, and tutors are now somehow expected to mark 10,000-word dissertations in back-to-back one-hour slots.

This eats away at more than just time: “You immediately start blaming yourself that you’re not able to accomplish the work in the specified time,” said one tutor. “It feels very depressing. And then you talk to the other tutors and everyone says the same, and you notice: it’s not me who’s deficient, it’s our contract that’s deficient”.

Thabo, who was a leading organiser of the protest, asked us not to publish his full name after he was dropped from employment in the latest contract renewal – a move he suspects is punitive, though we cannot confirm this.

SOAS’ marking ‘strike’ is a telling tale of the labour movement in an age of fractional work— but not just that. It speaks to the commodification of education in a country that once saw it as a public investment.

University is broadly free across Europe, Russia, India, and a good chunk of South America and the Middle East. The UK ranked among them for 40 years, which dramatically boosted both attendance and the state bill. Other countries rationalised that a brainier workforce would pay back in kind, but Tony Blair reintroduced UK tuition fees in 1998.

When interrogated by a struggling would-be student on Question Time, the Labour Prime Minister bemoaned: “It’s not popular obviously because people would like everything for free!” With these words, he declared higher education an expense, rather than an investment.

After tuition fees tripled in 2004 and 2012 (both of which broke manifesto promises), debt-laden students have rightly questioned whether the quality of education has ballooned with its cost.

But as fees have risen, Government grants have been slashed. So to balance their books, many universities have paired expensive student fees with inexpensive staff labour—leaving neither side happy.

Lynn, a global development student at the university who also declined to be named, said she was shocked when she learned of the “fragile job security” and “huge workloads” imposed on her tutors, who she said do “most of the heavy lifting”.

Another university quick-fix has been recruiting more higher-paying (i.e. international) students at lower academic thresholds, without funding more or better-paid teachers to provide the additional support required.

“Year after year, universities started to recruit more and more students (especially international students) without increasing the number of staff”, Hwanhee explained. “That has led to tutors –  the cheapest workforce – taking on an unreasonable amount of the workload.”

International student visas in the UK began increasing in 2016, as the Brexit referendum ushered in a points-based model to rank and assess would-be immigrants.

The 2023 peak of 650,000 students explained a third of that year’s record-making net migration figure (though reports were more likely to be accompanied by pictures of dark-skinned boat arrivals, who made up less than 10%). This surge was not the policy ‘catastrophe’ headlines proclaimed, but a clearly stated goal of the Government’s International Education Strategy.

With such students paying four times as much as residents, this was a calculated financial move. But if more international students are coming in, but proportionally more staff are not being hired, where is all that money going?

“We’d really like to know!” said Hwanhee. She points to the university’s £41 million profit reported in its latest financial statement.  ”We are not seeing that money coming to the lecturers, nor the tutors. Not even the cleaners. So it’s a good question where that money’s going.”

But the economist did discover one notable hike in SOAS spending, which brings our story full circle.

The same year that pro-Palestine protests broke out on campus, there was a 25% increase in security-related spending. The object of these students’ protest? Their fees are being invested in profit-run organisations linked to genocide in Gaza.

SOAS did not reply to Media Storm’s request for comment.

Media Storm’s latest episode: ‘SOAS on Strike: Why are university staff refusing to work?’ is out now.