The Friday email: 27 September 2024

Further education and prisons: making the case for change

If you work in further education (FE) or prison education, you can help take our message to the heart of government with the lobby of Parliament on Wednesday 23 October (17:00-19:00). FE and prison education staff will be meeting their local MPs to ask them to support our New Deal for FE and Prison education: unlocking futures campaigns. Please let us know you can come by filling in this short online form.

• Unlocking futures sets out UCU's vision for prison education and will be a crucial part of any attempt to address the crisis in prisons and rehabilitation of offenders. Our campaign calls for action to address funding, recruitment and retention, and the pay and conditions of prison education staff. Find out more about our fantastic prison education members and the work they do here
• Our New Deal for FE campaign is gaining support from across the sector and beyond with over 2,000 people signing the petition calling for national bargaining and an end to the low pay, neglect and underfunding of colleges in England. Find out more in this short video.

Further strike action at Education Training Collective

UCU members at Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy, and Redcar and Cleveland College--all part of Education Training Collective (ETC)--will down tools on Thursday 10 October in a long running dispute over pay. Please consider donating to their strike fund; details are available here.

Update on higher education pay and working conditions negotiations

Negotiations on the 2024/25 pay claim were concluded. UCU and the other campus unions received the final offer from Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). A branch delegate meeting (BDM) took place on 24 September and you could see results of the voting here.

The elected representatives on UCU's higher education committee (HEC) are meeting on 27 September to determine the next steps. We will share decisions made by HEC as soon as practicable.

Reclaim Higher Education updates

Please support the following branches where UCU members are continuing to defend jobs and education:

• University of Kent: a strike ballot opened on 2 September and will close on 4 October; Kent UCU is in dispute over the employer's failure to rule out compulsory redundancies as well as the employer's failure to guarantee that no staff will suffer detriment to their workload
• Open University: OU has begun a collective consultation on proposals to fire and rehire a group of OU associate lecturers if they do not 'agree' to have their working hours and pay reduced. Please support OU associate lecturers by signing this petition
• Sheffield Hallam University: strike action planned for 23-26 September was suspended in the light of an improved offer from SHU's executive board. SHU UCU members are voting on whether to accept or reject the offer. Click here for the latest news on SHU's dispute.

Nominations for UCU NEC, officer and trustee positions

Nominations are now open for the UK-wide positions of UCU vice president (becoming president in 2027-28), honorary treasurer, trustees, and for more than 20 positions on UCU's national executive committee (NEC). Nominations are also sought for officer and committee member positions on UCU Scotland's executive. Full details including role descriptions and nomination forms can be found here. The deadline for completed nominations is Monday 11 November at 17:00. Elections take place in the new year.

Scottish higher education policy conference

UCU Scotland is hosting a conference on Scottish higher education policy, entitled 'Scottish higher education in 2024: what next?' The conference will be held at the University of Edinburgh on Wednesday 30 October. Themes include academic freedom and the IHRA definition of antisemitism; higher education funding in Scotland; housing; race and higher education; university governance; the UCU Scotland Green Network; and fair work. Click here for more details including keynote speakers and registration.

Equality groups conference 2024

UCU's annual equality conference is an opportunity to discuss and agree strategies to progress equality issues at work. The 2024 conference will be held from 28 to 30 November at Conference Aston in a hybrid format.

The conference will hold five separate half-day conferences for Black, disabled, LGBT+, migrant and women members, with a joint plenary session for all equality strands. For more information and registration, please use this link which will take you to the main equality groups conference page. Registration deadline is 28 October at 18:00.

Higher education redundancies survey

The Open University UCU branch is coordinating a survey of UCU members about redundancies in higher education, and you are invited to contribute by clicking here and answering the questions. The survey closes on Monday 14 October.

Artificial intelligence survey: share your views

Over 1,000 UCU members have already completed our AI survey, but we want to hear from the rest of our members on this issue too. Members in further, prison and adult and community education are particularly encouraged to complete the survey to share your experience of AI in the workplace. Tell us how your students are using AI, if you are using it, and how your employer is responding. Your responses will inform the work of UCU on AI.

Climate and ecological emergency meeting

UCU's annual meeting on climate and ecological emergency will take place on Zoom on Thursday 14 November (11:00-16:00) and you can find full details including registration here. Registration deadline is Thursday 7 November at 17:00.

UCU continuing professional development workshops

Join us for a CPD workshop this October. These 90-minute online interactive workshops are free and open to all UCU members:

• Running climate learning events: Thursday 3 October, 10:30-12:00
• Challenging LGBT+ exclusion: Thursday 10 October, 14:00-15:30.

Please look out for our Monday CPD email with details of all the online workshops running this term.

UCU at the Labour Party conference 2024

UCU's demands were taken to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool earlier this week. General secretary Jo Grady appeared live on Newsnight and LBC programmes to make the case of greater investment in post-16 education. You can watch the Newsnight debate on BBC iPlayer (from 21st minute onwards) or a short clip on X/Twitter.

A successful UCU event was also held which set out a bold new vision to a packed audience and involved general secretaries from CWU, NEU, NASUWT and representatives from NUS and TUC. You could also read UCU's responses to speeches by Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson. UCU has urged the government to use the autumn Budget to increase taxes on profiteering businesses and help solve the university funding crisis.

In line with UCU policy, UCU is not affiliated to, and makes no donations to, any political party. UCU will continue to work with all parties across the UK to protect and improve the working conditions of UCU members in post-16 education.

Ceasefire NOW!

UCU joins with many others in Palestine, the UK, and beyond to reiterate the demands for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, unrestricted access to humanitarian aid, and the lifting of the siege of Gaza. 

We are very concerned by the sharp rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia across the UK and beyond since October. We restate our unwavering opposition to all forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia--hate has no place on our campuses or in our society. UCU also has a dedicated 'Ceasefire Now' web area where you can find information and resources.

Celebrate World Teachers' Day, 5 October

Overworked, undervalued, and underpaid, more and more teachers are leaving the profession they love. At the same time, fewer young people enter the teaching profession. The result is a global shortage of over 44 million teachers, a crisis that puts education at risk.

This World Teachers' Day highlights the need of robust social dialogue with teachers everywhere. The 2024 celebrations focuses on 'Valuing teacher voices: towards a new social contract for education'. Click here for more information on how you and your branch can get involved.