NOTES 647 



Reference has already been made in these pages to the unsatisfactory position 

 of the members of the non-professorial staffs at the universities and university 

 colleges in this country. This position has been aggravated, not only by the 

 enormous increase in the cost of living during the last three years, but also by the 

 facts that the Thomson report fails to recommend any reasonable amelioration of 

 it, and that university teachers have been deliberately excluded from the benefits 

 of the Teachers' Superannuation Bill. As an outcome of these circumstances an 

 attempt has been made during the past year to form an Association of University 

 Lecturers for the purpose of bringing pressure on the Government and the 

 authorities directly concerned. To those familiar with university life, the need 

 for such a movement has been evident for many years. With the modern develop- 

 ment of the university, especially on the science side, the number of lecturers has 

 greatly increased and their chances of obtaining a professorial post have corre- 

 spondingly diminished. In consequence many of them, after spending the best 

 years of their lives in the university, have been compelled to migrate into other 

 spheres in order to earn a livelihood. That this statement is in no way an 

 exaggeration may be seen from the fact that the average salary of 330 lecturers 

 in fifteen colleges and university colleges is ,£206, and of these only thirty-seven 

 per cent have salaries over ,£200. Out of this truly magnificent sum the unhappy 

 recipient is expected to save for his old age, for only those in receipt of more than 

 ,£200 are (in the ordinary course) admitted to the very unsatisfactory contributory 

 superannuation scheme. The initial steps towards the formation of the association 

 were taken in the summer of 1917 by the members of the staff of Liverpool 

 University. They invited representatives from other universities to come and 

 discuss matters with them, and at the first meeting practically every college of 

 university rank was represented. As a result of the meeting a conference of 

 university lecturers was formed and the foundations of the new association have 

 since been laid. Its basis has been broadened so as not to exclude any branch of 

 the teaching staff of a university, and it is hoped and confidently expected that 

 before the end of the year the new body will be a living force competent to improve 

 and watch over the interests of the university teacher. Its claims have been 

 strengthened by the scale of salaries granted to the staff at the National Physical 

 Laboratory now that that institution has been taken over by the Government. 

 This scale starts at ,£175 for the junior assistant fresh from college, and rises by 

 six stages to ;£ 1,000, the limit for superintendents ; each stage rising by suitable 

 increments to its own maximum. Further, a similar scale, rising to ^75°. nas been 

 approved by the Councils of the Scotch Universities, but this, at present, is held 

 up by the University Courts owing to lack of funds— the Government grants being 

 altogether inadequate. At a time when labour is making such extravagant 

 demands, and when living expenses are in consequence mounting higher and 

 higher, the injustice of the present position is cruel and glaring, and it is to be 

 hoped that alleviation may come without the need of recourse to methods which 

 would be deprecated by none more than those forced to employ them. 



