I made sacrifices to get into university. But I’m not angry at the staff going on strike

Many of the staff I have spoken to are extremely apologetic about the disruption, but feel they have been left with no other choice, writes Mohammad Zaheer

You can understand my frustration when I found out that after the struggle and sacrifice to get to university, my course was now going to be disrupted (iStock)

Attending King’s College London was a dream of mine ever since I happened to chance upon its Strand campus as a teenager visiting the city for the first time. The eye-watering tuition fee for international students, however, meant that it was firmly out of my grasp for undergraduate studies. It took me over a decade, but I finally managed to save enough money to be able to attend for my postgraduate degree this academic year.

I mention all this so that you can better understand my frustration when I found out that after the struggle and sacrifice to get there, my course was now going to be disrupted by the university strikes. I am not alone in this predicament.

Over one million students in the UK will be affected when staff from 74 universities across the country walk out due to a dispute over their working conditions, pay and pension. With many modules having ten weeks of teaching, the four-week strike could mean that students at my university lose a third of their teaching time this semester.