We have called for a finance strategy reset: prioritising staff and core teaching and research at Bailrigg, improving transparency in financial governance, pausing capital spending except essential maintenance, and ensuring that resources are not diverted away from the University’s core mission.
The state of governance in #UKHE would make anyone in any other sector scream with horror.
Decisions are being made, but nobody know where and nobody takes responsibility for them. Yet (drastic/damaging) changes keep being pushed through.
In case anyone was under any illusion that managers creating a two-tear system stops with that initial creation.
Absurd levels of disregard for what it takes to be a university; vile divide-and-rule practices.
As well as being an appallingly unfair travesty of a decision, this isn’t going to look good in their REF submission either… #UKHE
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sheffield-hallam-restricts-tps-access-ref-academics-only
Would merrily advocate for every single university manager to be made to convene a first-year module one term out of four. And let them see how 'light' the workload is.
They do not understand what it takes to work in a university these days, and they are dismissive of us by that ignorance.
The fact is that we've never had a manageable workload and the university facilities have been held together with chewing gum and toothpicks for years.
If these comments get you riled up, the best thing you can do as a union member is vote in our ongoing industrial mandate ballot. If passed, we can use industrial action to push back against:
-compulsory redundancies
-course closures
-obscene staff-student ratios
Just a quick reminder that our Vice Chancellor said this into a microphone in front of university employees last week and thought nothing of it!
What's with all the stress on employees' 'feelings' by VCs these weeks as well? It's such a callous attempt at discrediting our speaking out against the very real, material destruction of universities.
Just declaring that job security and workable workload are 'simply gone', as if it's some abstract, outside entity has irreversibly imposed that, and not the decisions made by *her* and her team -- and their refusal to actual advocate for what universities are.
Looks like we are not the only people to take issue with the V-C's reported comments on funding for students who lack a-levels
We won an Employment Tribunal about @qmul.bsky.social's promotion procedures being 'tainted by sex'. Let's discuss how. With guest speaker Michael Sprack from Garden Court Cambers.
TODAY, 10 March, 4pm, Bancroft 4.04 and zoom
register for zoom link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #EqualPay #IWD
It even got @qmul.bsky.social in the Daily Mail
#EmploymentTribunal #EqualPay #IWD #InternationalWomensDay
This is that Employment Tribunal, by the way:
We won an Employment Tribunal about @qmul.bsky.social's promotion procedures being 'tainted by sex'. Let's discuss how. With guest speaker Michael Sprack from Garden Court Cambers.
TODAY, 10 March, 4pm, Bancroft 4.04 and zoom
register for zoom link: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #EqualPay #IWD
OMG, with 'EX', they mean "Employee experience"
Feels apt, that prefix that implies former, especially as the pillars are about wellbeing <snort> and voice <guffaw>.
We didn't realise @ucea.bsky.social was into fiction-writing these days.
"a risk-based regulatory model can only direct attention proportionately if the intelligence that informs it is being systematically captured, processed and carried to decision-makers."
🎯🎯🎯
🧵👇👇👇 Until now, bosses at Northumbria University have said the institution is 'financially robust' - they even put that in a recent job advert for a new Deputy Vice Chancellor. So if these shocking revelations are true - and not just 'project fear' - ... www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...
'This process [of 'passive suppression'] includes moves by policymakers to steer research resources, precarious working conditions and frequent changes to academic systems, Maria Leptin explained in a speech at an event in London on 5 March, hosted by the Council for At-Risk Academics.'
Some transparency on behalf of the #UKHE sector regulator would be welcome.
Or, you know, an entirely new regulator because this one has no credibility at all.
'If generative AI is shaped by power, politics and principle, then education cannot treat it as neutral infrastructure. It is not simply a tool that reflects human bias. It is a technology aligned to particular visions of the future.' 3/3
'The systems now being woven into education are shaped by a remarkably small group of people. Not “the internet” as the source of training material. Not “society” influencing the way we use these tools.'
Fascinating that this comes from within Jisc. 1/3
NEW on Wonkhe: The Office for Students makes many regulatory decisions, but the evidence for these decisions is often hard to come by. David Kernohan asks whether more transparency would make for better regulation buff.ly/6p0Wwug
I dropped out of high school, gained a huge amount of often difficult life experience, then went to community college, and now I'm a professor in a prestigious university. There HAS TO BE A PLACE for non-traditional students. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Show your support for staff out on the pickets again today at the University of Essex.
Over 400 jobs. Southend Campus on the chopping block. This is a wrecking plan for education, for jobs and the city.
Rally to save Southend Campus: Sunday 8 March, 1pm, Pier Hill → Broadway. Join us.
um, asking for a friend, is anyone keeping a list of all the Languages departments/courses that have been cut/under threat in UK universities? #langsky
Trade unions: minimum service level laws and key 2016 restrictions on industrial action and picketing are being repealed, and there will be new rights to time, space and access for union reps and organisers from Oct 2026.
4/4
Precarious contracts: new rights to guaranteed hours that reflect actual hours worked, plus better protection around late shift cancellations, are being phased in.
3/4
Fire and rehire: from Oct 2026, dismissing and re‑engaging to force through changes to pay, hours, leave or pensions will usually be automatically unfair unless the university can show genuine financial necessity.
2/4
📢 Birmingham UCU members – the Employment Rights Act 2025 is now live and it’s a big shift for us in HE.
Key points for staff at UoB:
Unfair dismissal: qualifying service will fall to 6 months and the cap on compensation is going, increasing the risk to employers who sack staff unfairly.
1/4
