Universties impotent?

John Sutherland wonders how the university sector has become so impotent

"By defining themselves as a workforce, all those decades ago, university lecturers have found themselves in that most unenviable condition - a workforce without muscle and without powerful friends. They can be ignored, taken for granted, pushed about, hired and fired as the planners see fit.

Striking, without the power to wound, bruise, or - most importantly - be taken notice of on the national stage, is a gesture of impotence. The "action" is misnamed. It is a cry of pain. It's also a crying shame, because the cause is right. But you won't see that in the papers."