Dr Eurig Scandrett (Queen Margaret University)

Election address

Senior Lecturer in Public Sociology, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.

Over fifteen years in UCU I have been Branch President, Vice President, Health and Safety Representative, Sustainability Representative, Negotiator, Caseworker and UCU Scotland Vice-President

I represent UCU on Scotland's Just Transition Partnership

The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the HE sector, but also demonstrated its strengths. Where HE has been treated as a public good and investment in staff and student safety paramount, universities have demonstrated resilience, and shown the value of publicly funded student fees. However, across the sector there have also been too many examples of inadequate risk assessment and excessive pressure on staff, putting disabled, BAME and pregnant staff at particular risk. Some institutions have used the pandemic as an excuse for redundancies, increased casualisation and downgrading. 

HE can no longer continue with a business model based on international fees and private income, with Principals acting as entrepreneurial CEOs. The post-COVID recovery is the time to transform the sector. We need secure, publicly funded institutions with collegiate governance, accountable to the staff who deliver the work and the diverse communities we serve.

Commercialisation, casualisation, intensification and the rightward shift in politics has put academic freedom under severe threat. Muslim staff and students are targeted by Prevent; the hostile environment and Brexit increases vulnerability of BAME and European staff; feminist academics are bullied for defending women's sex-based rights; misleading definitions and malicious allegations of antisemitism are being used to silence solidarity activists. UCU must take a strong and principled stand against all forms of racism and misogyny and challenge their colonial and patriarchal structures.

I am an experienced branch representative and caseworker. I negotiated Recognition for UCU in my post-92 institution, been active in UCU Scotland as Vice President, in the education committee and as congress delegate, and I participated in Transforming UCU and Jane McAlevey's Strike School. I have over 30 years of experience as an activist in the environmental, pro-feminist and peace movements and international solidarity. I led a trade union delegation to Bhopal in solidarity with the survivors of the industrial disaster and I chair the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

COP26 is an opportunity to demand a just transition to green jobs in a sustainable economy, where education and research is key. As UCU Scotland's representative on the Just Transition Partnership I am active in the COP26 Coalition and the Just and Green Recovery campaign.

UCU must take the initiative to build a different future for our universities. As a UCU activist in a post-92 university, as Honorary Secretary I would advocate for a proactive union to build a diverse and vibrant higher education sector with strong working conditions, democratic governance and social relevance.