Stop 'dangerous assault' on higher education, UCU urges education secretary

In a letter from UCU general secretary Jo Grady, sent on the first day of UCU's annual Congress, the union urged Mr Zahawi to reverse the Office for Students 50% cuts to funding for arts and creative subjects and to stop attacking so-called 'low value' courses. The union also slammed plans to restrict access to courses that do not meet arbitrary graduate outcomes data.

The letter comes in response to announced job cuts and course closures at De Montfort University, the University of Roehampton and the University of Wolverhampton. These include 226 academics facing the sack at Roehampton and a cull of 146 courses at Wolverhampton across the areas of performing arts, fashion, social sciences, interior design and fine art.

The letter condemns vice chancellors for adopting the Westminster government's 'reductive agenda' and says the proposed cuts amount to a 'bonfire of arts and humanities provision' and would restrict access for working class students.

At the Congress, held online, Jo Grady paid tribute to members standing united against callous employers and a Conservative government that is attacking post-16 education.

Jo said that during a tough year across further and higher education, its members had fought against the Westminster government's attempts to 'shrink' the educational opportunities of working class students. But she warned more 'attacks are coming from employers that are toeing the government's reductive higher education agenda. Whether it be minimum eligibility criteria, the lowering of the tuition threshold, scrapping of BTECs and attacks on the arts and humanities everywhere we look, it is clear that we cannot vacate the pitch.'

Jo's speech also covered the union's successful disputes in the past year. This includes pay offers at Bury College, United Colleges Group, South Thames Colleges Group, Croydon College, City of Bristol College, Sheffield College, Weymouth College, and City College Plymouth; making the past year the most successful in further education - in terms of disputes won - since anti-trade union laws were brought in in 2016.

In higher education, Jo paid tribute to the UCU branches currently engaged in the marking and assessment boycott at UK universities over cuts to pensions and attacks on pay and working conditions. Jo said: 'we can only win our disputes and build the higher education sector we deserve by sticking together.'

Jo also thanked the nearly 4,000 respondents to UCU's sexual violence survey and said the groundbreaking report's findings have led to employers, governments and student bodies backing UCU's demand for an end to the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual violence in post-16 education. Jo also told Congress that the union is recruiting a dedicated sexual violence case worker to support those who come to the union for support.

Jo ended by saying 'I don't think there has been a more challenging time to work and campaign within further and higher education in the UK. But if the evidence of the last year is anything to go by, our members, our union, is more than up for the fight.'

Full Speech:

Hello Congress, it is great to be with you today. 

Three years ago in Harrogate was the last time we were able to meet in person, just after I was elected general secretary. I really cannot wait to be able to do that again.

Just last week, I hit the third anniversary of my election as general secretary, the proudest and most humbling achievement of my life.

I spent part of that week visiting members at a picket line in Richmond, where college staff are fighting an inspiring battle against management who want to fire all 127 of their teachers - and rehire them on inferior conditions, whilst slashing their holiday by 10 days.

I don't need any reminders about how determined and strong our members are. But if I did, that group of members - up against a vindictive bully of an employer - would be one of the places I'd start.

The truth is that across our union, inspirational members and activists are everywhere. 

Our union isn't any good at just watching. We get angry at what we see happening to one another and to our education institutions. And we act with the purpose; the purpose to change things for the better.

And although the last year has been challenging, we have so much to be proud of.

Our union is leading the entire sector in the fight against sexual violence. Our groundbreaking report by our member led task group, released at the end of last year, highlighted endemic levels of abuse inside higher and further education. I was proud to set that group up in my first year as general secretary.

That report and its recommendations would not have been possible without the brave testimony of thousands of survivors and other members who have supported survivors in the workplace. I want to pay tribute to them.

The report demanded an end to the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in cases of sexual violence in all post-16 education settings. These 'agreements' have no place in a modern society and are used to silence and intimidate survivors.

Since we released our report and our demands, employers, governments, student bodies and other campaigners have backed us. Our union can, and does, make a difference. 

And making that difference starts now with our union rewriting legal proceedings so that survivors can access support from the moment they join the union. 

We are also recruiting a dedicated sexual violence case worker for those who come to the union for support.

And I'm pleased to tell you now congress that we are not just delivering this as a trade union, but implementing it as an employer too. A watertight policy that keeps people safe is the bare minimum we must commit to delivering. And under my leadership we will.

In Wales, our union is working closely with the Labour Government on bringing in new measures to reduce workload and improve wellbeing in the further education sector. Demonstrating that having a progressive government in power that doesn't want to set fire to everything in education, does have its benefits.

In Northern Ireland, our union successfully settled two county court challenges against two further education colleges who thought they could disregard their pay obligations to our members. A new collective agreement secured by UCU put an end to lecturers being appointed on the lowest salary possible.

Our union has been there when the stakes couldn't be higher. In Burnley College, our regional office and activists challenged devastating health and safety failures and pushed for an investigation when one of our own, Donna Coleman, died from Covid.

The recently released and damning report by the Health and Safety Executive into those shortcomings shows once again that we called it right.

This is just the beginning, but Burnley College should now become a safer place to work.

But we don't stop there. We are still demanding that long Covid be considered an industrial disease. And we are the only union systematically collecting the data that will help us to achieve this. We aren't going anywhere for the many who we know will be living with the after effects of Covid for many more years.

Our union is leading the way in the fight to ensure postgraduate researchers are afforded the same rights as staff. And just this year we recruited two new posts to deliver this vital campaign.

Our union is the one that in the last year defended an agreement to create new, secure contracts for over 4,000 associate lecturers at the Open University.

This is my third year as your general secretary. Running for election directly from the shop floor with determination to change post-16 education. In those three years our union has faced incredible challenges, some expected, others less so.

When the pandemic came, members, branches and staff worked harder than ever to keep workplaces safe. And in that same time, we balloted more members in industrial disputes than any other union.

But our will to fight doesn't stop at the door of education. I'm proud to lead a union that remains unequivocal in its support for the people of Palestine. 

A union that supported the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as they saved drowning refugees and beat back a right-wing media onslaught.

A union that was a founding member of the Kill the Bill coalition.

I'm proud to be part of a union that condemned the murderous invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's forces.

And I'm proud to lead a union that won't stand by as the existence of trans and non-binary people is called into question.

Our union has a great history of being a power for good.

I want to take a moment to talk about further education, an area where are getting stronger each day. In the coming weeks we will open ballots across England for industrial action, which could see more branches get over the line and take action than ever before.

Our Respect FE campaign aims to turn the tide on over a decade of falling pay, unmanageable workloads and attacks on professionalism.

We are demanding a 10% pay uplift and for serious action to address over work. I'm proud too that in our joint union claim we are yet again demanding that colleges become Living Wage employers.

Disgracefully, just last week, the Association of Colleges informed union negotiators that they would be recommending a pay offer of 2.25%.

Even if we weren't in the middle of an unprecedented cost of living crisis, this offer would be beyond insulting. I know our activists and members in branches are ready for the next stage of this fight, to win decent pay and improvements to working conditions.  And I as general secretary will be with them throughout.

They might not have realised it yet, but employers are wrong to pick this fight with our members in further education. Why? 

We've won a huge number of disputes in FE branches since the Trade Union Act was introduced. Including in the United Colleges Group, South Thames Colleges Group, Croydon College, City of Bristol College, Sheffield College, Weymouth College, and City College Plymouth.

And because of the way you have built the union in places like Bury College, a branch who increased their density from 54% to 68% in the last year.

Just last month our members at Bury secured a pay deal worth 6% - triple what the employer originally offered.

Your passion and determination is how I know we will win. This no better demonstrated than by our members in Novus Prison branch. 

Last Congress I spoke to you about their fight for basic Covid health and safety protections. How staff were being bullied by vindictive management who were uninterested in their concerns. Our members were even having their union meetings infiltrated.

Since then, I am pleased to report that those 600 members won vital new protections. And alongside our colleges in the North West, they will now be joining the new ballots over pay and working conditions.

In higher education, we have come a long way since 2019. From struggling to get more than seven branches over the line in national disputes, to around ten times that number. We know employers don't like how organised we are. In fact, we know they don't like us at all.

That's why Universities UK resorted to lying repeatedly about what their cuts to Universities Superannuation Scheme pensions would do to our members' retirement incomes. That's why UCEA has not only refused to make improved offers on pay, but ignored the issue of casualisation entirely. And then urged vice chancellors to dock 100% of pay for staff engaged in action short of strike. 

And I'd like to take this moment to acknowledge the branches who have been, and continue to be, engaged in the marking and assessment boycott in our universities across the UK. Your strength in the face of intimidation from management is an example to the whole movement.

The picture in UK higher education is bleak. Employers and their representative bodies are nastier than ever. 

Aided and abetted, in England at least, by a deeply reactionary government, it feels like the ground truly has shifted. Meanwhile in Scotland just yesterday, the government confirmed that over the next 4 years it will be cutting funding across post-16 education. That means to win, we have to think differently, organise harder and build.

Our survey of higher education staff, released in April this year, highlighted a sector in total crisis.

Staff across the UK are demoralised with two thirds telling us they are likely to leave the sector entirely. A staggering 88% said they had no optimism for the future of higher education. 

You would think this information about the potential terminal decline of universities would lead vice chancellors to seek solutions. But you would have thought wrong. The change we want to see, we will have to deliver ourselves.

We know marketisation has been a grotesque failure in our universities. And is responsible for the rampant commodification of higher education and the shocking working conditions our members face each and every day. Whilst bosses sit on huge assets, staff struggle to get by on falling pay and precarious contracts. Meanwhile a workload crisis causes shocking levels of burnout and equality failings go unaddressed. It's despicable. 

Across the UK, UCU has grown its profile. We might have a hostile Tory government in Westminster, but in the trade union movement, we've never had more friends. Thank you to all those who have made generous donations to our fighting fund. And of course to our comrades in CWU, for even selling mugs.

All of us here at Congress today know that we can only win our disputes and build the higher education sector we deserve by sticking together.

More attacks are coming from employers who are toeing the line of the government's reductive higher education agenda. 

Whether it be minimum eligibility criteria, the lowering of the tuition fee threshold, the scrapping of BTECs, or the relentless attacks on the arts and humanities, it is clear that we cannot vacate the pitch.

To be ready, we need to reshape and organise like never before. 

Our union is recruiting more and more organisers to help us build density, support branches and win disputes

That's why for the first time our union will be appointing a new head of organising role.

That's why hundreds and hundreds more members are being put through organising for power and have now developed our own UCU in house programme.

And that's why the fighting fund will be replenished to ensure the support is there for those who need it whenever they take action.

I want now to also pay tribute to those branches who have been fighting their own local disputes including at Goldsmiths, where management are trying to cut dozens of jobs in the arts and humanities. Your determination is inspiring.

And to Royal College of the Arts, who last month won a groundbreaking settlement in their dispute over casualisation and workload. After building their membership density and taking weeks of strike action, our members secured full employment rights for all, an end to the use of zero hours contracts and caps on workloads. Huge credit to everyone involved in that struggle.

Today, we have branches in Roehampton University, Wolverhampton University and De Montfort fighting redundancies across the arts and humanities. And so too in Dundee where jobs are also under threat.

And of course, a special mention to our new Napier branch in Scotland, who have come into their own this year. Beating threshold in the April and November ballots, delivering vibrant picket lines and recruiting reps.

I don't think there has been a more challenging time to do our work in further and higher education in the UK. But if the evidence of the last year is anything to go by, our members, our union, is more than up for the fight.

For a post-16 education system that doesn't shrink the horizons of working class students. A system that rewards staff fairly and respects their professionalism. That is the bare minimum we demand for our students and ourselves.

This has been a tough year for us all, but I have never been more sure that our union has what it takes to win.