Elizabeth Elliott

All the solidarity!

🚨 FIFTH consecutive vote for industrial action 🚨

🔥 Two week ballot window
🔥 75% turnout
🔥 73% YES to strike action
🔥 81% YES to ASOS

Our members will not tolerate victimisation and won’t be intimidated.

UCU staff are not the enemy. It’s beyond time for the GS to talk to us.

#HandsOffMarie

A governance structure which is run on pleasing one man incentivises people to hide things that aren’t pleasing, make unrealistic pitches & hope the consequences won’t be for you, and refrain from asking critical but needed questions.

In the absence of actual checks, you end up with crazy costings

What *did* they do all day? Because this feels like a key part of the job, the whole ‘knowing what’s going on’ bit?

UK unis: we need to pay mid-six figure salaries to the people in charge, because it is imperative we get the best and brightest to lead us.

Also UK unis: It isn't reasonable to expect us to do anything to solve any of our problems, or even to check whether a new problem might be brewing.

Excellent article: shows small-mindedness of punishing universities here on narrow, insular metrics out of their control. Seeing benefits of a degree in global terms changes conversation (+ it won’t be 2026 forever).
(And in any case UK grad salaries still 45% premium on non grad: not nothing)

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

A Dr who did nothing other than exist while being trans, being driven from the NHS by bigots and bullies, being hailed as a win.

This is the UK.

Gothic Tales by Mary Shelley: 9780143139041 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books Ten of Mary Shelley’s best short stories that push the boundaries of Gothic literature Mary Shelley is most known for Frankenstein, but in the years following the release of her magnum opus, which...

New from Penguin Classics on 13 October: Mary Shelley’s Gothic Tales, edited and introduced by Daniel Cook (paperback, Ebook and audiobook): www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788598...

Audible: www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0GM5TSRR...

European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly For "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women" The resolution, though nonbinding, is a significant shot at those who seek to erode transgender rights on the continent.

In incredible news, the European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women."

Even the center-right European People's Party voted for the declaration.

It will form a foundation for their position at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Our latest.

Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present - CALL FOR PAPERS - RHS Nostalgia and Radical Politics, Past and Present Workshop - University of Northampton, 15 June 2026. Call for papers deadline - 22 February 2026. Nostalgia, defined most simply as a wistful or sentime...

Did you read all the way through your @royalhistsoc.org newsletter? If not you may have missed my CFP! royalhistsoc.org/calendar/nos...

just reset mine on here! I LOVE having the pronoun labeler, it's so useful to make sure I'm always referencing people respectfully and correctly. please please go do this!

Former senior manager here who got promoted to VC at another university said in a public town hall: "If it looks we're making up as we go along, that is because we're making up as we go along across the sector."

But sure, let that lot run/ruin the entire #UKHE sector.

New exhibition for 2026: The Colonial Brontës | The Brontë Parsonage Museum The influence of British colonialism on the literary family and their work is examined in a new exhibition, The Colonial Brontës, which will run from 4 Feb

On the new #WutheringHeights film.

I've co-curated an exhibition (Bronte Parsonage Museum) showing what the Bronte children read & wrote (they invented their own colonies) & how Wuthering Heights was inspired by their colonial reading material.
www.bronte.org.uk/news/new-exh...

@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social are on strike 12, 13, 17-19 Feb and 2-6 March to stop bosses @northumbriauni.bsky.social slashing pay and pensions forever. Please donate to the branch fighting fund here: Unity Trust Bank, UCU Northumbria Univ NE119, Hardship Fund, SC 608301, AN 20295578

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

This breaks my heart: ‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Southampton Solent strike begins next week in fight over fire & rehire pension attack Staff at Southampton Solent University will take two days of strike action beginning next week after management forced staff out of their preferred pension scheme, and threatened to sack all those who...

Forcing staff out of their pension scheme and threatening dismissal if they object is shameful. It’s fire & rehire by another name.

Show your support for staff at Southampton Solent University striking on 9 & 17 February to protect retirement security. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1439...

yup. yup. yup. to all this by the brilliant @lboroucu.bsky.social members: our bosses WANT us atomised, you can see it in all their actions. They know they have to treat us better when we work together, as we have power that way.

YouTube video by Sean Wallis Sean Wallis: Why I am standing for Vice President of UCU in 2026

I'm standing for election for Vice President of UCU.

👇This is why.

I am standing for a stronger and more democratic UCU led by ordinary members.

See seanwallis.uk
On uculeft.org you can read about our other candidates, and follow @uculeft.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6ZX...

Grant Buttars (University of Edinburgh)

It’s @ucu.org.uk NEC election time again. Please read my election address and consider giving me your vote www.ucu.org.uk/article/1436.... Please also vote for Sean Wallis for Vice President HE seanwallis.uk @seanawallis.bsky.social

Vital case of University of Sussex vs Office for Students is in the High Court this week. The results will matter for all of us given the OfS's overreach and directions of travel.

Back to back kid football and shinty - she needs to be prepared and would appreciate the hug

Photo of a black and bronze Jack Russell terrier in a scarf

Sending you all the good wishes, and a dog of commiseration. I’m so sorry.

Trans and non binary people make up about 1% of the population but 43% of youth suicides.

The government has blood on its hands

Council of Europe votes to ban conversion therapy The Council of Europe has voted to pass a resolution banning so-called 'conversion therapy' for all, including trans people.

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Jan 29 PinkNews: Despite strong lobbying efforts by anti-trans Sex Matters, human rights body Council of Europe votes 3-to-1 to ban ‘conversion therapy’ across its 26 member states. UK Labour MP Kate Osborn brought the motion & 10k ppl in UK wrote in support of it.

As a proud former @ucu.org.uk @birminghamucu.bsky.social safety rep I know how scary it can be to stand up for workplace safety. I urge @drjogrady.bsky.social to work with @uniteucu.bsky.social @unitetheunion.bsky.social to resolve this case

Photo of Marie, Unite UCU's health and safety rep, who is being victimised by her trade union employer

📣 Hands off Marie!

Tell @drjogrady.bsky.social and @ucu.org.uk to stop victimising Unite UCU's safety rep.

✍️ jgrady@ucu.org.uk

#HandsOffMarie

#UniteTheUnion @unitetheunion.bsky.social

Oh no! Sorry it’s so awful just now and really hope home is more livable in very short order

Edinburgh. Aberdeen. Dundee. Strathclyde. Different campuses same reality. Staff are stretched, students lose out.
#SaveOurUniversities #UCU #Scotland #HigherEducation

Good news - keep fighting, everyone!