Lincoln Branch of UCU

This is today 6.30pm! Register your place here: ucl.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

UCU to launch England wide college strike ballot over pay, workloads and national bargaining The University and College Union (UCU) today (Friday 3 October) confirmed it will ballot around 10,000 staff at 68 colleges across England in a fight for fair pay, manageable workloads and binding nat...

UCU - UCU to launch England wide college strike ballot over pay, workloads and national bargaining www.ucu.org.uk/article/1421...

Solidarity @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social !

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If you haven’t joined the union - time to do it right now! Better and stronger together 👏

#ucu #jointheunion #universityoflincoln

Page argues franchising — where students are disproportionately from poorer backgrounds — has been oversold as a means for widening participation. In reality, he says, it often leaves students behind, with outcomes “taking down our overall metrics”. Staff were never comfortable with the franchise-heavy model, he says. “Voices were raised about their concerns, the things they saw and practices that didn’t align with our values, but they weren’t listened to,” he adds. “Now we live or die by our own work. We’re not going to be reliant on other organisations. I would advise any other university with large franchise numbers to do the same.” Buckinghamshire cut ties earlier this year with five of its former private franchise partners. Even so, other universities are continuing to explore franchise models. For Queen Mary’s new “International Year One” in business and management, for example, it will outsource the teaching and recruitment for the programme to Kaplan International College, a for-profit group offering pathway courses into higher education. Taught at Kaplan’s centre in London Bridge, the one-year course will enable foreign students to move straight on to the second year of Queen Mary’s business management undergraduate degree. Kaplan’s tuition fee is about £9,000 cheaper and requires lower entry grades and English language qualifications.  Queen Mary academics fear the Kaplan pathway, billed as the only one of its kind leading to a London Russell Group university, will not improve the academic preparedness of students.

A brilliant piece in the FT about the human and institutional cost of overreliance on international student fees. Managers are making our most vulnerable students pay the price of a failing funding model and are skewing the purposes of university in their pursuit of fees.
www.ft.com/content/3f49...

How would we react to something like this? We need to step it up @ucu.org.uk

Strike starts TODAY!!!

Branch members will be picketing from 8 to 11 today, tomorrow, and Wednesday at UP's west, south, and north entrance and Jubilee's main entrance on Derby road.

Come show your support!

#StopTheCuts #SaveHE

Thank you for your solidarity
@umucu.bsky.social
@ucu-ulster.bsky.social
@uculincolnbranch.bsky.social
@kclucu.bsky.social
@cardiffucu.bsky.social
@northantsucu.bsky.social
Nottingham Trent UCU
Kingston University UCU
University of York UCU

Our friends at @leicesterucu.bsky.social are holding a rally tomorrow at 1pm. All DMU UCU members who are in the area, please consider stopping by to show solidarity!

#WeAreTheUniversity

The dispute is on! More details and campaign will follow, keep an eyes on emails and remember - it’s not just about pay, it’s also about protecting our employment agreements and commitments to avoid more redundancies!

Solidarity with @uonucu.bsky.social entering 4 weeks of strike - no to compulsory redundancies!

Useful summary about our upcoming national dispute from @ucuwestminster.bsky.social

BBC Radio 4 - Universities Challenged - Available now Available episodes of Universities Challenged

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... - some insightful listening material about the crisis of the sector!

Shock university ‘merger’ announced The Universities of Kent and Greenwich are set to ‘merge’ in a shock move that’s the first of its kind.

A shocking merger! Who’s next? www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/n...

Really helpful post here about the upcoming ballot which you'll have seen an email about on Monday. #WeAreTheUniversity - vote yes to:
▶️protect jobs and prevent cuts
▶️defend the agreements that support our work
▶️demand a pay uplift.

Paul Nowak, @tuc.org.uk General Secretary, stands with UCU members.

In October we ballot over pay, agreements, and jobs.

Vote YES.
#WeAreTheUniversity #ucu

a group of striking university staff in sunglasses with pink and white UCU posters and leaflets

A hand drawn sign with the words "Peter says" above a drawing of a table, with the word "nothing" underneath the table.

University staff demand to have their concerns *on the table* as University of Edinburgh threaten £140 Million budget cuts.

UK wide ballot paves way for national strike action across university campuses Over 65,000 University and College Union (UCU) members working in universities across the UK will be balloted for strike action after employers refused to budge from their 'offer' of 1.4%, which repre...

BIG news incoming! www.ucu.org.uk/article/1416...

🧵1/ Our branch just passed a motion condemning the stealth closure of the MA in Black British History.
We did this to demand accountability — for the future of the MA and for the College’s promises on racial justice and equality.
shorturl.at/gIUVG

Solidarity with @sheffielducu.bsky.social

Great national event this weekend too

Welcome back to our members and all staff, for those who haven’t joined the union yet - do sign up and join us at the next branch meeting! lincoln.web.ucu.org.uk

Starting new academic year with some exciting free local events - Lincolnshire Unions Summer Social! This Saturday 2pm onwards! Sign up link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lincolnshi...

Solidarity to all the UCU branches dealing with further cuts and 'reorganisations' while also trying to do some actual work during this month!
Extra solidarity to those UCU case workers and negotiators who are all doing their damnedest to keep jobs and support our colleagues.
#AcademicSky

The University of Dundee has announced it will defer the 1.4% national pay rise for staff in higher education.

With inflation above 3% this means hard working staff at the University will be getting at least a 3% real terms pay cut this year.

Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it’s time to actually fix our broken university sector | Zoe Williams The figures simply don’t add up for higher education in England and Wales. Yet delusional politicians from all parties seem intent on avoiding the issue, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams

"The figures simply don’t add up."

Tuition fees are rising, staff are underpaid, and universities are in crisis but politicians still won’t face the truth.

Thanks to Zoe Williams for highlighting the crisis in The Guardian today.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As we move into the next phase of the admissions cycle with results on Thursday, and the inevitable implications of that for 2025-26 institutional budgets, we strongly encourage everyone to keep a close eye on how those budgets are being managed in their institutions...

Sign the Petition Hamish Falconer. We Demand Urgent Action to End the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Palestine.

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