Talk:2018–2023 United Kingdom higher education strikes

Merger proposal

I propose that 2018 UK higher education strike be merged into 2018 USS pension dispute. They're on the same topic. The latter is the fuller article, but I'm not certain which title is best. The strike was not across all of UK HE, so perhaps the former title is less appropriate? On the other hand, people might find it more readily than the more technically correct one. Alarichall (talk) 14:49, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

@Alarichall: @Richard Nevell: Aaaargh. This muddies the waters indeed. Wish I'd known sooner. I am in deep (prolonged) discussion on whether this article can be included on Wikipedia's front page in the In The News section. Link to discussion is here. Given that we are teetering on this article's inclusion after a struggle (and that getting the 2nd article appraised might reset the whole discussion) and given also that I couldn't find the other article, I am inclined to think that sticking with the 2018 UK higher education strike is a better title purely in terms of discoverability and continuity of the In the News discussion. I was also working from how the strike has been described in the national press and while the description of it as a higher education strike and a USS dispute are virtually synonymous, I do think for the lay person having strike in the title means the reasons behind the dispute can be further explained. The other article is more detailed certainly. Is there an easy way of taking relevant sections to incorporate into this article? If not perhaps an independent third party could help us decide best way forward. Will consult with Richard Nevell (Wikimedia UK) anyway. Good to see another (illustrated) article on the subject it has to be said. All the best, Stinglehammer (talk) 15:16, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Happy to merge to your title, don't worry. Feel free to keep working on getting the article under your title onto In The News and I'll plan to (help) merge the article I created to your one. Alarichall (talk) 17:45, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Okay, I'm starting work on this now, @Stinglehammer:, @Richard Nevell:, and it'll take a while, so if you can hold off editing for a bit, that would be helpful. I'll let you know when I'm done. Alarichall (talk) 17:54, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks @Alarichall:, much appreciated. Richard Nevell (talk) 18:20, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

@Stinglehammer:, @Richard Nevell:: I've done the merger! No doubt some copy-editing is now in order (and probably sometimes the same source is referenced in different ways and so referencing could be consolidated), but at least the material is all now in one place. It was also a welcome opportunity and assistance to me in improving the structure of the article (I hope...) and the discussion of the disputed valuation. No doubt the arguments for UUK's proposal could do with more coverage though. Alarichall (talk) 18:42, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Numbers

I'm new to UK universities and besides, I don't want to change the first sentence in the lead without asking for comments.

Don't you think that some numbers in the lead would give the article additional notability? The first sentence is:

The University and College Union (UCU), a trade union representing staff at UK universities, began a strike on 22 February 2018 as part of an industrial action against Universities UK (UUK), a body representing said universities.

Wouldn't it be better if it was changed to be (additions in italics, removals in strike-outs):

The University and College Union (UCU), a trade union representing staff XXX members at UK universities, began a strike on 22 February 2018 as part of an industrial action against 64 universities represented by Universities UK (UUK), a body representing said universities.

I don't know the current number of members (it was 120K back in 2007) nor the number of members participating in the strike. But one of the source news articles should have an approximation. The "64 universities" I got from the first 'graph of section 1.

Just a thought. If you think it something of value, please don't wait for me; edit the lead yourself. --RoyGoldsmith (talk) 00:59, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! Good idea. I'll try and do this when I have a moment, though of course I'm happy if someone else gets to it first... Alarichall (talk) 13:42, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

Page title

With the first month of 2020 nearly done and dusted and the dispute ongoing, does the article title need to be changed to 2018–2020 UK higher education strikes? Richard Nevell (talk) 13:08, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

UK university pay and student income figure

Should we add an explanation for the missing data points at 2008-09 in the 'UK university pay and student income' figure? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.251.254.226 (talk) 11:50, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

Or if anyone can find the relevant Times Higher article, we could add the missing data: I just couldn't for the life of me find that year's information when I last looked! I should hunt again. Alarichall (talk) 21:15, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

Taming this chronicle-like article

This is just a note to say I recognise that, when I started working on this article in 2018, it was a big but well-defined and encyclopaedic article about a strike concerning pensions. As the industrial dispute went on and their scope grew, the article became increasingly like a chronicle, and at some point it needs wrapping up and turning back into a proper encyclopaedia article. That time has not yet arrived, but I thought I'd better post here and say that I do know the article needs fixing! Alarichall (talk) 14:31, 18 February 2023 (UTC)