Political journalist of the year boycotts London Metropolitan University event in job cuts protest

The award-winning reporter and humanitarian expert was due to give a talk at The Women's Library on Thursday 26 November. However, she has told organisers she will not appear unless the academic boycott imposed by UCU has been lifted. As the university enters a second month of being greylisted by UCU, and consequently shunned by the academic community, the event has now been postponed.
 
Lesley Abdela said: 'I deeply regret not being able to appear at the event in November, but I am simply not willing to break the academic boycott. I hope, for the sake of staff and students, that London Metropolitan University reaches a negotiated agreement with UCU. Greylisting is clearly a last resort and it is important that matters are settled quickly.'
 
In September London Met became the first university in Britain to suffer the ignominy of an academic boycott from UCU after it was 'greylisted' for pushing ahead with plans to axe 550 jobs. A move the union has described as disastrous. UCU has asked colleagues throughout the academic community to support staff at London Met by observing the greylisting, which includes:

• non-attendance, speaking at or organising academic or other conferences at London Met
• not applying for any advertised jobs at London Met
• not giving lectures at London Met
• not accepting positions as visiting professors or researchers at London Met
• not writing for any academic journal which is edited at or produced by London Met
• not taking up new contracts as external examiners for taught courses.

At the end of last year London Met was hit by a £15 million reduction in its recurring grant, and repayment demands totalling more than £36 million by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) following submissions of incorrect student completion records. The university responded by saying it intended to cut 550 posts. Despite UCU's best efforts to persuade the university to enter into formal negotiations to reach a resolution, the university is forging ahead with the redundancies.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'The response from the academic community to our greylisting of London Met has been fantastic. We are really pleased that Lesley has come out so publicly to back our campaign. Like us, she understands that we cannot allow the university to be destroyed.
 
'We cannot stand by and allow hundreds of staff and students pay the price for a catastrophic failure of management and governance. It is unacceptable for staff to pay for mismanagement with their jobs and for students to suffer huge detriment to their education'.
 
Lesley Abdela is one of Britain's most celebrated journalists and has reported from a number of conflicts, including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Aceh, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2006 she was voted 34th in the New Statesman's Top 50 'Heroes Of Our Time'.