Open Letter to the Principal's Office of the University of St Andrews

by Markus Pfeiffer

DearDear reader. Count them. I guess each of them has a six-figure salary. Professor Sally Mapstone, Professor Lorna Milne, Derek A Watson, Professor Brad MacKay, Professor Clare Peddie, Alastair Merrill, Professor Tom Brown, Professor Katie Stevenson, Professor Monique Mackenzie, Professor Frank Lorenz Müller, Professor Paul Hibbert, Professor Ineke De Moortel

I am an alumni and former employee of the University of St Andrews.

I am again contacting you to voice my great disappointment about your treatment of your staff, some of them my former colleagues.

Yesterday marked a day where Universities UK and USS slashed pensions for university employees by a big margin. This happened with at best dubious arguments.

I challenge you to credibly explain your motives and justification for this outrageous step to me.

It comes on top of other long-standing issues with workloads, casualisation, and unfair pay, and frankly disrespectful treatment, after a pandemic which the university only survived because your staff put in even more effort on top of the already existing over-work.

You are pontificating from your heights of six-figure salaries, heading a charity.

I find this obscene, and I find you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

In my opinion you are not doing a very good job: You do not pay your staff fairly, and do not treat them with the due respect.

Why are you awarded such disproportionate salaries?

I now work as a Software Engineer. I am very happy with my job. I am treated fairly. I am paid well. I can say that changing employer, and in particular leaving higher education, was the best career decision I have made.

Furiously,

Markus Pfeiffer