The Friday email: 28 March 2025

Strike action at UK higher education institutions

University of East Anglia UCU members were on strike on Wednesday 26 March and are on continuous action short of a strike (ASOS) in a dispute over compulsory redundancies.

Meanwhile, members at University of Kent were striking every day this week over management's failure to rule out compulsory redundancies and to respond to UCU's reasonable demands around workload. Kent UCU members are also re-balloting to extend their mandate for industrial action.

Newcastle University staff have continued their strike action throughout this week. The dispute is over management's threat to cut £35m, including £20m from its salary bill, equivalent to around 300 jobs.

Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) UCU members were on strike on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 March in a dispute over the university's deferred implementation of pay increase. Despite saying it could not afford to implement the pay award, SHU management is pushing ahead with its £220m campus and satellite London campus.

Brunel University of London UCU continued strike action this week. The dispute at Brunel arose over management's original plans to make 135 academic staff redundant; representatives from Brunel UCU lobbied their MP in the House of Parliament.

University of Sheffield International College UCU members were on strike on Friday 28 March in a dispute over job cuts and redundancies.

Stop the Cuts: sign UCU's 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. 

Last week we held a parliamentary lobby where representatives from UCU branches pressed MPs to support our Stop the Cuts campaign for urgent government intervention.

Please sign and share UCU's Stop the Cuts petition and make your voices heard.

New Deal for FE: important update

The Spring Statement this week was another missed opportunity for the UK government to address the years of neglect and under-investment in further education (FE) and reverse the funding cuts to adult and community education (ACE).

To build a decade of renewal and deliver the skills needed to drive growth requires strategic investment and a workforce strategy, not a repeat of the failures of austerity: we need a New Deal for FE. We demand pay parity with schoolteachers, national workload agreements and binding national bargaining. FE branch delegates will be coming together at the end of May for the FE sector conference at UCU Congress to determine the next steps with the New Deal for FE campaign. The motions going to the FE sector conference can be found here. To make sure your FE branch participates in the union's democratic decision-making process, branches need to register delegates no later than Wednesday 23 April.

The further education committee (FEC) met recently and decided that there will be a consultation of members to gauge the levels of support for an industrial action ballot. Before the member consultation rolls out, there will be further branch briefings. Please look out for more information soon.

Finally, save the date for the national UCU demo in London on Saturday 10 May which will bring members and supporters together from FE, HE, prison and adult education to make our demands across all sectors heard. 

Industrial action ballots at UK universities

Cardiff University UCU members have overwhelmingly backed industrial action in a fight against huge job cuts. A massive 83% backed strike action, while 86% backed action short of a strike (ASOS) up to and including an assessment boycott, in a ballot with over 64% turnout. Cardiff UCU members will decide on the next steps.

Next week, we are expecting results from Civica Election Services on the ballots at University of Sheffield and Durham University over job cuts.

Universities currently balloting also include Keele, Kent, Birmingham City University (BCU) and Liverpool. A strike ballot will open imminently at University of Edinburgh in a dispute over management's threats of £140m of cuts and failure to rule out compulsory redundancies.

Finally, please support the following branches where UCU members in higher education are also continuing to defend jobs and education, for example Bangor, Bedfordshire, Bradford, Canterbury Christ Church, Dundee and Kingston.

Kendal College: dispute over low pay

This week UCU launched a formal trade dispute with Kendal College over its failure to table any pay offer whatsoever this year. This is despite the college employer body Association of Colleges (AoC) making its formal pay recommendation for the 2024/25 academic year six months ago. Kendal College is the lowest paying college in Cumbria and UCU members will be balloted for industrial action if management refuses to resolve the dispute.

Coventry University: sign the petition!

Coventry University staff and students have been protesting against the fire and rehire cost cutting exercise that vice-chancellor John Latham has embarked upon. You can continue to help Coventry UCU's campaign by signing the petition demanding Latham's removal from his government appointed non-executive post on the board of the Department for Business and Trade. The petition now has almost 4,000 signatures, and you can add yours here.

Calling all UCU prison educators

UCU is partnering with Education Support on a project about the health and wellbeing of prison educators. You can participate in two ways:

• we are asking you to complete an anonymous survey which takes approximately 15 minutes
• join a focus group session--you will receive a £30 voucher as compensation for your time and you can sign up here.

UCU is also partnering with Professor Nicola Rollock and the team at NIANRO Consulting to help us to identify how we can help to improve Black prison educators' workplace experiences. Please sign up to take part in a research interview that will last approximately 75 minutes. You can do so by emailing Motunrayo at NIANRO Consulting by Friday 28 March. All information collected will be anonymised. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Angela Nartey or Maxine Looby.

Ofsted consultation

Ofsted is consulting on proposed reforms to its inspection process in the further education and skills sector. Proposed changes include the introduction of report cards alongside new evaluation areas; a new inspection toolkit; and a new methodology for inspection. We are compiling a UCU response to these significant reforms and would welcome any comments or reflections you may wish to contribute. Please submit any comments to Angela Nartey by Monday 14 April.

UCU submits evidence to three inquiries

UCU recently submitted evidence to the Justice Select Committee Inquiry into 'Tackling drugs in prisons', which you can read in full here. In addition, UCU general secretary Jo Grady gave evidence to another Justice Select Committee Inquiry, 'Rehabilitation and resettlement: ending the cycle of reoffending'. You can view a recording of the oral evidence here (around 16:00:00) and our written evidence here. We are immensely grateful for the assistance from our prison education members.

On Tuesday 25 March, Jo Grady gave evidence to the Education Select Committee Inquiry into 'Further education and skills'. You can view a recording of the oral evidence here (around 11:12:00) and our written evidence here. Members may be interested to know that not one Conservative member of the Education Select Committee attended the session!

Labour's cut to adult skills budget

Responding to the Department for Education's decision to slash adult skills budgets by 6%, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'This shockingly cruel cut to adult education funding will hit learners hard and makes it less likely they will gain the skills needed to get good jobs or move on to further education. It is especially perverse to be cutting adult education budgets while simultaneously slashing disability benefits on the basis it will get people into work.' Click here for the full statement.

UCU reasonable adjustment survey

We are aiming to gain an understanding of your experiences with reasonable adjustments at work from both the perspectives of UCU members and branch representatives who support disabled UCU members. We kindly ask that you complete our brief survey to share your insights; this survey will close on Friday 11 April.

UCU statement on benefit and welfare cuts

In light of the UK government's announcement concerning cuts to the benefit and welfare system for disabled people, UCU's FE and HE reps for disabled members on the national executive committee (NEC) have issued a statement opposing these measures.

Destruction of Islamic University of Gaza Teaching Hospital

Fobzu (Friends of Birzeit University) is sending an urgent appeal for supporters to email their MPs regarding the destruction of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital--Gaza's only cancer treatment centre and the teaching hospital of the Faculty of Medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG). 

Powering hope: generators for Ukrainian students

Please consider giving towards this fund to supply generators to Ukrainian university students. All donations are being matched by an anonymous philanthropist.