An ongoing row over pay and funding for further education (FE) lecturers across Scotland is having a significant impact on students’ futures through a huge loss in teaching hours and marks not being registered. Amid a once-in-a-generation cost of living crisis, lecturers have not had a pay rise since 2021. But those at the heart of the industrial action say this is not just a fight for pay, but for the future of education in working-class communities.
“FE was always the place for working-class kids to go, people who maybe wouldn’t consider university as a first step, or who need good training to get a better job,” says English and Spanish lecturer Paula Dixon, speaking to Big Issue from the picket line of Glasgow Clyde College’s Anniesland campus in late June. “But year on year they’re cutting
