Join the fight to stop the cuts: sign the petition and support UCU's campaign!

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. We demand current cuts are halted and also that the UK government meet our four key demands:

• put an end to the broken fee-based funding model
• introduce measures, such as student number controls, to stop unhealthy 'boom and bust' competition between universities
• a review of governance in higher education
• an end to hostile environment policies that make the UK an unwelcoming place for international students.

Support the campaign: 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.

Why this matters

Through this campaign, we have an opportunity to stand together, with our students and with our local communities. It is our opportunity to make our elected leaders understand there will be no place to hide if they do not step in and help save our sector.

So far, thousands of people have seen the campaign in Tuesday's edition of the Guardian newspaper, and some of our striking branches were interviewed by national news crews from BBC and ITV and the fight against cuts was featured on BBC Breakfast as well as local and national radio outlets.

We are the only group standing in the way of these brutal cuts, with our union and members taking action, and in the last weeks I have joined pickets at University of Dundee and Newcastle University, and I will be with Brunel University of London next week.

Together, we can continue to build the momentum needed to force urgent government action. Let's stop the cuts and fight for the future of higher education.

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary