University Stipends and Pensions

Abstract

ALL university teachers will thank you for the leading article in NATURE of June 17 pointing out the injustice done to them and to university education by the exclusion of such teachers from the provisions of the School Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 1918. On one point, however, the article is misleading. It is stated that “what complicates matters is the fact that there exists a contributory pension scheme in the universities—the federated superannuation scheme—which is thought by some to be superior to the Teachers Act in certain respects.” It should be made quite clear, however, that the governing bodies of university colleges are at liberty to adopt the federated scheme or not, and that the governing bodies of some colleges have refused to adopt it, with the result that the staffs of these colleges have no prospect of any pensions whatever. The position in the University of London is, therefore, even more anomalous than was suggested, since some schools come within the provisions of the Act, some have contributory pension schemes, and some have none. The Northampton Polytechnic Institute and the Imperial College of Science and Technology have each an engineering department the courses in which enable their students to take the B.Sc. degree of London University as internal students of the University. The lecturers of each sit side by side on the Faculty of Engineering and on the various Boards of Studies of the University. The first-named institution is included in the Teachers Act, but the last-named is excluded. Lecturers at the former retire at the age of sixty with a non-contributory Government pension, whilst their confrères at the Imperial College may work as long as they are able with no prospect of any pension whatever.