The Friday email: 7 March 2025

Strike action at Newcastle, Dundee and Brunel universities

Newcastle University staff are striking for fourteen days in March; they began on Tuesday 4 and Thursday 6 March. The dispute is over management's threat to cut £35m, including £20m from its salary bill, equivalent to around 300 jobs. However, the university is looking to open a campus in India while making these huge cuts at home. You can find out more about the strikes and how to support striking staff by visiting Newcastle UCU branch's website.

Meanwhile, staff at the University of Dundee have continued strike action that began on Monday 24 February, over the university's threat to cut jobs including compulsory redundancies. The dispute began after the university senior management announced that they had allowed the university to run up a £30m deficit. You can read further updates from the Dundee UCU branch and send messages of solidarity via email.

Brunel University of London took one day of strike action on Friday 28 February; this will resume on Wednesday 12 March and you can click here for the full strike schedule. The dispute at Brunel arose over management's original plans to make 135 academic staff redundant.

Stop the Cuts, Fund Higher Education NOW: sign the petition!

Higher education is in crisis. One in two universities is proposing cuts to staff or courses, and up to 10,000 staff are seeing their jobs threatened. This is devastating for staff, students and education. 

This week we launched our Stop the Cuts campaign and here is how you can help:

1. Sign and share the petition: make your voice heard by signing and sharing the Stop the Cuts petition. Every signature builds our campaign and increases our voice
2. Sign Up for the lobby: we have a lobby of Parliament on Tuesday 18 March--over 20 branches have registered to send delegates but we have space for plenty more. Check with your branch and get yourself booked in. This is a brilliant chance for you to set out our case to your local MP
3. Save the date for the national UCU demo in London on Saturday 10 May: please look out for more information over the coming weeks as this demonstration will bring members and supporters together across HE, FE, prison and adult education to make our demands across all sectors heard.

Click here for the full update on Stop the Cuts from UCU general secretary Jo Grady.

New Deal for FE update

Today (Friday 7 March) a UCU delegation went to the Department of Education to present our New Deal for FE petition. Today also sees the UCU submission to the cross-party inquiry into the further education (FE) sector being complete. 

Almost 6,000 supporters signed the petition calling for a New Deal with pay parity with schoolteachers, national bargaining and action on workloads; the petition is now closed. Thank you for all you have done to encourage people to sign the petition. You can continue to support the New Deal for FE campaign by:

• presenting the petition to your college principal or senior management team
• taking photos of staff and supporters holding up our 'I support a New Deal for FE' posters and giant card petition props
• holding a lunchtime meeting about the New Deal for FE campaign
• sharing campaign leaflets in your workplace.

Click here for the full update on New Deal for FE from UCU general secretary Jo Grady.

Industrial action ballots across UK universities

Industrial action ballots opened on Monday 24 February at Cardiff University and University of Sheffield in disputes over job cuts. There are currently over 400 members of staff at risk of redundancy in Cardiff, while at Sheffield plans from management are threatening as many as 1,000 staff with redundancy.

Durham University UCU members are being balloted for strike action over plans by management to cut £20m from the university's staffing budget. Keele University UCU branch is balloting for industrial action over plans to make £2.25m staffing cuts in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Business School. If the plans go ahead it will be the first time in the institution's history that compulsory redundancies will be imposed. The branch are determined to oppose the plans and have called on the university to pause the process and re-enter discussions to find a less damaging solution. Please send messages of solidarity to Keele UCU.

Finally, please support the following branches where UCU members in higher education are continuing to defend jobs and education, for example Bangor, Birmingham City University, Canterbury Christ Church, University of East Anglia, Edinburgh, Kent, Northampton, University of Sheffield International College and University of Sunderland.

Birmingham City University dispute

The UCU branch at Birmingham City University has declared a dispute over the University's plans to put 36 posts at risk of redundancy and impose new performance targets that members believe are designed to set them up to fail. The vice-chancellor has said that anyone who does not buy into his vision can quit with a 'golden handshake' of six months' pay. Staff have until the end of March to apply for the voluntary severance deal or risk losing their job following more punitive performance management processes. The branch has called on the University to withdraw the threats or face possible industrial action.

Northern Ireland FE pay and conditions ballot

UCU declared a formal trade dispute with all six college employers in Northern Ireland after they failed to honour the terms offered to members in the 2023/24 pay settlement. A commitment to achieving full pay parity with schoolteachers, as well as an agreement to address all terms and conditions and workload of academic staff, has been reneged on. The employers have failed to respond to union correspondence and requests for meetings. Northern Ireland FE members will be balloted for strike action imminently.

Truro and Penwith College news

Staff at Truro and Penwith College in Cornwall were left shocked and angry when they were informed that potentially 100 jobs could be cut with up to 40% of those coming from lecturing/academic staff. 

In four years, management have overseen a catastrophic slide taking the college from success to financial peril with a deficit of £4.2m and expect hard working staff to pay the price. Management now appear intent on steamrolling through a redundancy process with little attempt at meaningful consultation. Click here for news coverage on the situation and please send messages of solidarity and support to the branch.

Support UCU's petition: remove Coventry University vice-chancellor from government role

Coventry University is putting 340 people at risk of redundancy. About a third of them will be sacked and the rest have been told they can apply for jobs in a subsidiary company. However, these jobs will mean they work longer hours, with less annual leave and sick pay entitlements and no access to the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS). 

The Government have vowed to outlaw 'fire and rehire' tactics but instead they have rewarded the Coventry vice-chancellor with an advisory role on the Board of the Department of Business and Trade. We do not think this accords with the Government's stated values and we want them to remove him from the post. Please sign the petition which now has over 3,600 signatures.

Calling all UCU prison educators

If you are a prison educator, we want to hear from you! UCU has commissioned two research projects. 

The first will seek to understand the health and wellbeing of prison educators. We are asking you to complete a survey with additional opportunities to take part in focus groups. Further information is available here.

UCU is also partnering with Professor Nicola Rollock to explore the motivations; experiences career aspirations and strategies for navigating the role among Black prison educators. We are asking you to take part in an interview. This project is open to past and present prison educators.

UCU elections 2025 results

UCU has a national executive committee (NEC), elected by the union's members. The elections take place annually, and the ballots to elect Trustees, vice-president, honorary treasurer and NEC members closed on Monday 3 March. You can now click here to view the election results.

Democracy in your union: UCU members' survey

This weekend is your last chance to have your say in the survey being carried out by the Labour Research Department (LRD), an independent research organisation. The aim is to capture members' experiences of UCU's democratic structures. This is your opportunity to have a say in the way your union is run. A reminder email will appear from LRD surveys today; thanks to the many who have already responded. Only one response is counted per member and further details on this will be in the LRD update.

Climate and ecological emergency: annual SDG Teach In

The 8th annual SDG Teach In is taking place from 1 to 31 March 2025. Pledge to take part in the 2025 SDG Teach In by embedding one or several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into your educational practice.

The Teach In is open to all educators, trainers and facilitators around the world in all types of (in)formal education.

Opportunities to tailor the Teach In to your educational contexts are endless--from stimulating student learning with artistic prompts about human rights to clean air, to organising mock climate conferences, and creating case studies about local biodiversity. All approaches to the Teach In are welcome.

UCU's LGBT+ work

The UCU LGBT+ research conference will take place at University of Manchester, and on Zoom, on Friday 16 May. You can register here.

There is a limited capacity for late proposals to present. Here you can submit your proposal to present of up to 500 words. Please note we do not require a full paper; the deadline is Wednesday 19 March.

UCU is also updating the Pride and Prejudice in Education report about LGBT+ experiences in FE and HE (2016). We are inviting you to complete a survey by the deadline of Friday 21 March. Please do share the survey as it is for all LGBT+ FE and HE staff and students/learners. The chief investigator is Dr Kieran Higgins based at Ulster University.

Employment Rights Bill and Queen Mary UCU

Members may be aware that the Queen Mary University of London UCU branch has been at the forefront of campaigning against disproportionate deductions for industrial action, an issue which has impacted many UCU members. They have developed some resources, including a model motion for branches and a template letter to MPs focusing on the Employment Rights Bill. These resources can be found here, as well as an invitation to join the branch's mailing list for updates. You can also read UCU's dedicated page on the Employment Rights Bill.

Cradle to Grave 2025 conference, 29 March

Registration is open here for UCU's Cradle to Grave conference, which will take place on Saturday 29 March.

This annual conference is a chance for members to gather together to discuss some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the sectors where we organise. The theme of this year's conference is 'Education for liberation: building progressive post-16 education policy', and the confirmed keynote speaker is Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East.

The conference will be run as a hybrid event, with options to attend in person at the CCT Venue Smithfields, London or online via Zoom. We expect spaces for the in-person event to fill up quickly so register as soon as possible to secure your place. The deadline to register is Thursday 13 March; the conference is free to attend.

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 25 March

Tuesday 25 March marks the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and UCU will be hosting a special webinar that day (18:00-19:00).

The webinar is entitled 'Education, reparations and justice: the legacy of slavery in post-16 learning'. Our keynote speaker is Dr Leona Vaughn, academic and researcher in the field of equalities and social justice, and the webinar is hosted by UCU president Maxine Looby. Please click here to register.

Message for associate lecturers at the Open University

Many Open University staff also work for a second higher education or further education employer. The Open University UCU branch is asking UCU members with multiple HE or FE employers to check your details on MyUCU and ensure all relevant employments are listed as 'additional memberships'. Doing so will support branch organising and consultation on the Open University's restructuring programme, which is currently offering voluntary severance to all staff.

International Women's Day, 8 March

Join UCU in celebrating International Women's Day (IWD) on Saturday 8 March. This year's campaign theme is Accelerate Action and we have a new wallchart depicting women's fight for equality since the first International Women's Day. This is available on our website.