This is a petition for SUSU to hold a Student Union Senate meeting on whether SUSU should lobby for an overhaul of the current UoS phase 2 extension scheme and campaign for funded 6-month extensions for all PhD students.

Bea Gardner submitted on 19/03/2021 09:00

Closed on 26/03/2021 09:00

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, postgraduate researchers (PGRs) have been campaigning for funded extensions accounting for the disruption the pandemic has had on our ability to complete our research.  

 

Not enough money for PGRs 

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), who fund approximately half of all PhD students in the UK and whose decisions are often the benchmark for other funders, have not released adequate funds necessary to meet the real need of PGRs through the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding support offered so far falls short of what is needed to ensure PGRs can complete their research. For example, despite UKRI’s own research finding that 77% of funded PGRs required an extension averaging 5 months, for PGRs finishing after March 2021 they have only released funds for less than half of funded PGRs with a maximum extension of 3 months. Furthermore, central government has not released any additional funds for PGRs. A recent FOI revealed the regulator, The Office for Students, has not discussed PGRs at any meetings since before August 2020.  Within UoS, higher education and wider society, PGRs are being left behind.  

Flawed, discriminatory application process.  

As a result of the lack of funding made available to support PGRs,  UoS has created a highly competitive application process for funding extensions which is deeply flawed and discriminates against those with protected characteristics. The application process is causing huge stress for PGRs for what remains an inadequate amount of funding to complete our studies.  

SUSU should take a campaigning stance on this issue which affects the majority if its PGR members. 

We, the undersigned, call or a union senate meeting on this issue where the following motion will be discussed:  

SUSU Resolves to: 

·         Support the Pandemic PGRs position that all PGRs studying during the pandemic should be entitled to access a 6-month funded extension, with further extensions available based on need. 

·         Campaign for both UKRI and the UK government to make more money available to support researchers, including PGRs, affected by the pandemic.  

·         Lobby UoS to immediately overhaul the current Phase II extension application system, including: 

o    Allowing PGRs to apply more than once for an extension if their first application is unsuccessful. 

o    A specific and measurable plan for how UoS will ensure fairness across application rounds, marginalised groups and research areas. 

o    To reduce the unnecessary burden of proof put upon PGRs to disclose trauma experienced during the pandemic by requesting the only the minimum evidence necessary. 

·         Lobby UoS to collate and publish the outcomes of the Phase II extension applications including the number of successful and rejected applications. 

·         Work collaboratively with the UCU to campaign for fair and equitable treatment of PGRs throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond and support the UCU national campaign to have PGRs recognised as workers.  

Current Signatories 265/250

Jodie Ackland
Qazi Salman Ahmed
Mohammed Al-Mhdawi
Arianna Albayati
Sarah Alewijnse
Alba Vega Alonso Tetilla
Thomas Arney
Ellie Atayee-Bennett
Florence Atherden
Fatumah Atuhaire
Dorian Audot
Alexandra Avrutin
Lewis Baker
Jennifer Ball
Connor Bamford
Denitsa Bankova
Maeve Bartlett
Nathaniel Baurley
Felipe Becerra Sanchez
Sarah Belben
Fang Ben
Laurence Bennett
Natalie Berry
Sarah Binet
Oliver Blackman
Krzysztof Bolhuis
Bethany Bowden
Fiona Bowler
Gabriel Bramley
Alice Brock
Matthew Brown
Michael Buckingham
Leonard Budd
Florentin Bulot
Zoe Burgess
James Butterworth
Aybala Cakmakcioglu
Charlotte Campbell
Luca Capezzuto
Michael Casey
Anna Cavalleri
Adam Chalabi
Zoe Chapple
Neytullah Ciftci
Hannah Connabeer
Ailish Craig
Benjamin Cunningham
Joshua Curry
Francesco D'Amore
Andrei- Dascalu
Alastair Dawson
Jake Daykin
Karla De Lima Guedes
Mark Dix
Oana Dragomir
Regan Drennan
Joseph Early
Chloe East
James Easton
Graham Elliott
Amy Elson
Benoit Espinola
Geraint Evans
Yue Fan
Hannah Felstead
Danielle Fennell
James Fernando
Yanna Alexia Fidai
Lorna Fielker
Nathan Fox
Thomas Frank
Ewan Fraser
Ann Garbett
Bea Gardner
Ben Giordano
Kate Goldie
Lewis Grant
Joshua Greening
Claire Greenwell
Ella Guise
Akash Gupta
Kim Hadfield
Peter Hammond
Gaoce Han
Morgan Hannah
Stella Harrison
Anna Hart
Marcus Hatton
Maarten Heijnen
Shaun Hemming
Leah Hewer-Richards
Lauren Hibbert
Nick Hillier
Charlotte Hipkiss
Elaine Ho
Simon Holland
Luke Holman
Robert Holtzman
Becky Hopkins
Emma Horn
Katie Horton
Anna Hurley-Wallace
Gareth Hurman
Alice Iles
Stefan Ilie
Kaho Inoue
Aleksandra Isajeva
Dima Ivanova
Amy Jackson
Gregory Jackson
Chandni Maria Jacob
Holly Jenkins
Amy Jewell
Majuwana Kariyawasam
Nikita Karra
Lydia Katsis
Lorna Kearns
Olivia Keegan Carr
Jamie Kelly
Helen Kent
Ara Khodavirdi
Laurie Kirkcaldy
Kamesh Korangi
Timo Koren
Denis Kovachev
Kristina Kovacic
Timo Kuerten
Deepak Kumar
Amina Ladjali
Ann Lanari
Faidra Laskou
Sarah Laughlin
Isaac Leal
Reuben Leal
Amina Lechkhab
Charlotte Lee
Tin Leelavimolsilp
Jia Li
Sorawit Limthongkul
Anthony Lindley
Katerina Litsou
Meijing Liu
Alexandra Loveridge
Carolynn Low
Haoyan Lu
Sruthymol Lukose
Bianca Luna
Kirsty Lynch
Abigail Mabey
Tristan Madeleine
Hiral Makhecha
Erik Mata Guel
Elizabeth McKnight
Evangeline McShane
Alireza Meghdadi
Adam Meylan-Stevenson
Andreea Mihai
Abbi Mitchell
Mahmoud Mohamed
Hamish Moodley
Eleanor Moonan-Howard
Lizbeth Morales Berlanga
Heather Mulkey
Fernanda Munoz Salazar
George Muresan
Jared Mustafa-Holzapfel
Daniel Negus
Elise Nichols
Alex Nicol-Harper
Allison Noble
Alice Oliver
Charlotte Owen
Robert Owens
Irem Ozdemir
Neslihan Ozhan
John Paice
Eva Papadopoulou
Samuel Parry
Hannah Parry-Wilson
Oliver Pattinson
James Pearce
Hao-Che Pei
Corentin Penot
Amy Peters
Dominic Phillips
Thomas Phipps
Laura Pinson
Victoria Price
Holly Radford
Davide Raffaele
William Raimbach
Rhiannon Rees
Bo Roberts
Elisabeth Robinson
John Robotham
Ben Roche
Bernard Roper
James Roper
Ben Rowden
Maruti Sakhamuri
Robyn Samuel
Jeerapat Sang-Iam
Samantha Schafer
Alexander Simpson
Rachael Sims
Atul Singh
Ilias Skandalos
Imogen Smith
Jazzine Smith
Laura Smith
Natasha Smith
Ronan Smith
Monica Sood
Michael Spurway
Sebastian Stannard
Jessica Stead
Magdalena Steele
Callum Stirling
Nichola Strandberg
Yaron Strauch
Peter Syme
Roseanna Tansley
Luke Taylor
Robert Taylor
Christina Thiele
Ben Thomas
Isobel Thompson
Zaihao Tian
Lesia Tkacz
Christopher Tomsett
Lauren Towler
Dominique Townsend
Daniel Turner
Connor Tyler
Charlotte Underwood
Samuel Upton
Maria Van Rossem
Raul Varga
Rebecca Walley
Jiaqi Wang
Rebecca Ward
Verity Ward
Tom Wardle
Daniella Watson
Martin Watts
Chloe Way
Chen Wei
Adrian Weishaeupl
Ellen White
Micky Wierda
Sophie Wilkinson
Eunice Williams
Molly Wilson
Matthew Woodard
Madeleine Woodward
Emma Worthington
Alexander Wright
Rui Yan
Shengqi Yin
Wangke Yu
Michele Zadra
Karolina Zarzyczny
Federico Zavanelli
Boyuan Zhao
Seif Ziad