The Friday email: 4 April 2025

News from Brunel and Dundee universities

Members at Brunel University of London UCU continued their strike action. This week they have been on strike for four days and they will be on strike on all days next week. The dispute at Brunel arose over management's original plans to make 135 academic staff redundant.

Commenting on the news this week that planned job cuts at the University of Dundee could exceed 700 workers, Mary Senior, Scotland official UCU, said: 'Sacking over 700 staff at Dundee University is tantamount to academic and economic vandalism. This level of job cuts would be catastrophic for the city of Dundee and the surrounding area'. Dundee UCU members have been on three weeks of strike action. Watch this clip of Dundee University interim principal Shane O'Neill being questioned in Holyrood. The situation at Brunel and Dundee has also been addressed by MPs in the Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday 2 April.

Stop the Cuts: Westminster Hall debate

A Westminster Hall debate on the 'Impact of university finances on jobs in higher education' took place on Wednesday 2 April.

We are very grateful to Mohammad Yasin, Member of Parliament for Bedford, for leading this debate. In total, twenty MPs across the political spectrum spoke at the debate about institutions in their constituencies, including Bournemouth, Essex, Nottingham and Nottingham Trent, York and York St John, UEA and many others.

It is vital that we build upon this support from MPs for our Stop the Cuts: Fund Higher Education NOW! campaign, and continue to make our demand for urgent intervention to address the crisis in higher education heard.

You can watch highlights from the debate on YouTube, watch the full recording of the debate on parliamentlive.tv (from 14:30:00 onwards), or read the full transcript on Hansard.

We are also asking everyone to continue to sign and share UCU's Stop the Cuts petition.

UCU members in Northern Ireland FE colleges vote to take strike action

Following broken promises by the Minister for the Economy, and the employers' inaction over workload, lecturers in NI colleges voted for industrial action. In a resounding result 98% voted for ASOS and 90% for strike action. ASOS will begin from Friday 11 April to include the following:

• Withholding assessment and exam marks from College systems and Awarding Bodies (EBS Markbook, Canvas or Other). Assessment and feedback to students will continue but marks will not be entered onto college systems or provided to Awarding Bodies
• Withdrawal of goodwill
• Working to contract
• No overtime
• Refusal to engage in Additional Duties outside of those quantified in the agreed programme of work and/or local agreement
• Continuous non-cooperation with ETI inspections
• Continuous non-use of the EBS system, registers will be maintained in other formats.

New Deal for FE: important update

In last week's Friday email we have issued an important update on New Deal for FE. In summary:

• FE branch delegates will come 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. Please look out for more information on branch briefings
• 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

University of Sheffield UCU members have voted to take strike action in a dispute over drastic restructuring plans that put up to 1,000 jobs at risk. On a turnout of 57%, 74% of UCU members backed strike action and 83% backed action short of a strike (ASOS). 

Durham University UCU have also voted to take strike action over plans by management to cut £20m from the university's staffing budget. On a turnout of 64%, 72% of UCU members backed strike action and 81% backed action short of a strike (ASOS).

These follow Cardiff University's strong ballot result from last week (64% turnout). We are expecting results from Keele, Kent, Birmingham City University (BCU) and Liverpool in the next weeks. Meanwhile, a strike ballot will open at University of Edinburgh on Monday 7 April 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, Bournemouth, Bradford, Kingston, University of East Anglia, Newcastle, Sheffield Hallam.

Canterbury Christ Church University: vote of no confidence

Staff and students at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) have overwhelmingly delivered a vote of no confidence in the university's vice chancellor, senior management team, and board of governors.

The vote, organised by the CCCU UCU branch, was passed by 359 (96%) votes to 16 (4%) following growing anger over the institution's handling of current financial and strategic decisions. 

The result comes amid an ongoing dispute between CCCU UCU and university management regarding the failure to rule out compulsory redundancies. The result has already had a positive impact. The employer has agreed to open an enhanced early exit scheme after repeated requests from the branch.

UCU Congress and sector conferences 2025

The union's supreme policy-making body is its annual Congress, which is taking place in Liverpool from Saturday 24 to Monday 26 May. Please note that this year's Congress is in a hybrid format, so delegates could attend in-person or online. The deadline for the registration of delegates is Wednesday 23 April (17:00).

Congress includes separate annual meetings of UCU's further and higher education sector conferences, where policies particular to those areas are decided. You can click here for more information and motions to be debated will also be available on that page.

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.

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 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 Wednesday 16 April.

Suffolk New College UCU annual quiz night

Suffolk New College UCU branch recently held their annual quiz night and meal. The raffle and ticket costs raised vital monies for the branch's local fund and was an ideal opportunity to drive recruitment.

Thank you to all our reps, members and staff in the South East for inviting UCU president Maxine Looby to be the quiz host. The evening was a great show of solidarity and unity among UCU members, students and staff.

Academic-related, professional services staff open meeting

The academic-related professional services staff (ARPS) committee will be holding the next open meeting on Friday 9 May (12:30-13:30). ARPS members are invited to join the meeting to talk about the issues affecting you and your branches currently. The format is open and friendly and all ARPS members are welcome. Please register for the meeting using this online form and a Zoom link will be sent to you on the morning of the meeting.

UCU LGBT+ research conference 2025

The UCU LGBT+ research conference will take place on Friday 16 May. This hybrid conference will be in-person at University of Manchester or online via zoom. Registration closes on Tuesday 15 April.

Supporting members' wellbeing amid cuts and workload pressures

The ongoing crisis in higher education--job losses, cuts and course closures--is having a devastating impact on our members. Across both HE and FE, increasing workload pressures are taking a serious toll on mental health and wellbeing.

We know that many members are struggling, and it is vital they have access to the support they need. Education Support is the only UK charity dedicated to the mental health and wellbeing of teachers, lecturers and education staff across schools, colleges and universities.

They offer confidential, 24/7 support, 365 days a year, including a free helpline, counselling services and financial assistance. Click here for more information or to access support.

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.

UCU's financial information statement

You can read a statement on the union's annual return for the year ended 31 August 2024 here, as required by Section 32A of Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. 

The statement also contains a notice to members in Great Britain who joined UCU on or after 1 March 2018 in respect of the union's political fund. More information about the political fund can be found here.