Report: University Workers Prepare to Take Fight Directly to Labour
Polly Smythe
The University and College union has voted for national strike action over a funding model that’s ‘cannibalising’ the sector. Polly Smythe reports.
Tag: ucu
Report: Labour Rewards Fire-And-Rehire Uni Boss With Plum Government Role
Polly Smythe
At-risk staff at Coventry University called John Latham’s appointment to the Department for Business and Trade a ‘kick in the teeth’.
Report: Minister Who Loves Free Speech Starts a Witch-Hunt Against Academics
Polly Smythe
Michelle Donelan: 'The freedom to disagree is just as important as the freedom to agree'. Also Michelle Donelan: 'Criticising Israel is extremist'.
Report: University Docks Pay From Lecturer for Strike While He Was Having Heart Surgery
Andrew Kersley
SOAS has been accused of ‘gross incompetence’ after deducting pay for lecturers over a strike that they didn’t actually take part in.
Report: Universities Are Docking Lecturers’ Entire Pay for Not Marking a Few Exams
Polly Smythe
Academic staff face losing their entire month's pay over a marking and assessment boycott which will see them refuse a few hours' work.
Feature: What’s Going on With the Industrial Dispute at UK Universities?
Polly Smythe
In a long running dispute over pay, conditions and pensions, UCU hailed a historic breakthrough in negotiations. Not all academics were convinced. Polly Smythe Reports.
Analysis: Targeted or Indefinite Action? Here’s What’s Next for the Uni Strikes
Polly Smythe
Lecturers will strike for 18 days in February and March. Here's how a debate about tactics happened.
Opinion: University Students, Get Your Asses on the Picket Line
Zac Larkham
The ongoing UCU strikes have had a mixed reception from students. But learning conditions depend on the strikes' success, writes student organiser Zac Larkham.
Opinion: We, Goldsmiths Staff, Are Striking for the Future of Our Universities
Goldsmiths UCU Finance Working Group
When a new warden was appointed at Goldsmiths in 2019, she promised to continue the university’s ‘progressive’ legacy. Two years later, she faces massive industrial action. A group of striking workers explain.
Opinion: Students’ Unions Are Demanding a Covid-19 Discount. They Should Be Demanding Much More
Sarah Cundy
By complaining to the manager, SUs are buying into the logic of marketisation and stifling more radical students' demands, argues Manchester University student Sarah Cundy.
Art School Strikers Are Turning the Tide on Apathy
Joe Hayns
Striking art school workers are building new networks of solidarity, defying historically low trade union engagement and a professional self-image that is widely exploited by university bosses.
Why Are University Staff Going on Strike? Here’s What You Need to Know
Oliver Eagleton
University staff across the UK walk out tomorrow for the first time since March 2018. The strike resumes the struggle over detrimental pension changes, with further demands on casualisation and equal pay.
No Shortcuts: Meet UCU’s Radical New General Secretary
Craig Gent
"The idea that we just tolerate a managed decline because we can’t expect any better has just been entirely rejected." Jo Grady, an outsider, rank-and-file candidate, has achieved an unprecedented landslide in the UCU general secretary race. Craig Gent caught up with her at the union's annual congress.
Long Read: #OurUCU: The Real Culmination of the UCU’s ‘Turnaround Year’
Craig Gent
Attempts to avert any discussion of Sally Hunt's leadership of the University and College Union at its annual congress have exposed a schism between two models of trade unionism.
With University Staff Forced to Act like Border Guards, Striking Lecturers Must Show Solidarity with Yarl’s Wood
Dan Davison
UCU picketers must act in solidarity with hunger strikers in Yarl's Wood because their struggles are intrinsically linked. The inhumane border control system that makes international students fear failing to meet their visa requirements and puts the unwanted duty of immigration policing on to university staff, also creates detention centres.
Should Students Demand Refunds? 3 Perspectives on Student Demands in the UCU Strike
Illan rua Wall, Myka Tucker-Abramson, Hope Worsdale, Elio Di Muccio
Should students demand tuition fee refunds for days lost to strike action? The response to the demand has been mixed, with no clear dividing line between those who are for and against the strike.
Education Not Segregation: A Serious Strategy for Educational Reform for the Labour Party
Sol Gamsu
Angela Rayner’s speech at the Labour party conference indicated the possibilities for a radical alternative for education, but what would a long-term strategy look like?
2 Steps Towards the Socialisation of the UCU Strike
Callum Cant
Yesterday members of the University and College Union finished a 48 hour strike. Officially the dispute is over pay, but if staff and students want to take on the central issue - the marketisation of the sector - it will require some innovation.