University Lecturers on the Breadline: Is the UK Following in America’s Footsteps?

The Guardian takes a first-hand look at the U.S.’ ongoing trend towards the corporatization of higher education, and the real effects of driving down the cost of instruction to maximize profits:
“The thing is the real economic hardship of this,” says Wedell, who lectures at the University of Southern California Roski School of Art and Design. Her annual wages from non-permanent contracts in the past few years have oscillated between $21,000 and $24,000 depending on how many classes she’s been given to teach. “Scrabbling around” for non-academic work to supplement her income has been essential. “I have to sublet my apartment during the summer and live with my mother – at 43. I have put off having a family because of this. The situation is obscene.”
Read the whole story here.