Union struck by spate of teaching complaints

Academics in Sweden have submitted a torrent of motions to their union, Sulf, highlighting the toll that teaching is taking on their research work.

Sulf issued a call for motions to be debated during its annual congress, which is scheduled to take place on 22 and 23 November. A quarter of motions submitted concerned a lack of time for research and stress caused by ever-rising teaching commitments, the union said on 24 October.

The motions showed that government pressure to be more efficient is causing researchers to feel they have less and less time to perform the same tasks, Sulf said. The more teaching researchers have to take on, the more stressed they feel.