More 'disruptive innovation'...

'Huddled under blankets in my freezing office, because the anti-suicide lock on the window has seized slightly ajar, I am – like everyone –frantically trying to make it work for the students, [since] any hit in our student satisfaction scores will be an excuse for management to cut more jobs.'

Members! September is flying away, so that means it is time to check your emails to vote in the indicative ballot. Deadline Oct 3rd.

A reminder to members to vote in the indicative ballot by October 3rd

A state of emergency in Welsh and UK higher education

Such deeply sad news for @hefindavid.bsky.social 's loved ones & community. Such a loss. Hefin was a great friend of our branch & a committed @ucu.org.uk member - we will always be grateful for his solidarity.

“measures like firing people and closing programmes always seem tough yet rejuvenating, yet always block recovery and hasten decline.“ Neat-yet-painful summary of Where We’re At with #UKHE. The fatalism is understandable but disastrous. None of this is inevitable. isrf.org/blog/a-new-r...

8 members of Cardiff Uni Senate resign. “The relationship between the university’s executive board, including the vice-chancellor and the university’s staff and students is now described as toxic and devoid of even a minimum level of trust”

'One staff member from the School of Arts, Culture, and Language said: “This consultation has been a shambles. All four Business Cases were riddled with inaccuracies, missing data, and were completely inaccessible."' #UKHE #HigherEd

Welsh Universities are ignored by Welsh Gov't & left to burn Wales is behind England, Scotland & N Ireland in both teaching & research funding. Wales has lowest rates of 18yr olds applying to uni Wales is becoming a country that can't afford its future www.walesonline.co.uk/news/educati...

A distinguished archaeologist and academic who publicly opposed Cardiff University’s cuts programme has been ‘spitefully’ denied a status often given to retired professors ✍️ Martin Shipton

QMUL has removed 200 roles in just the last two years. Staggered reorganisations and stealth exits mean the number doesn’t hit the headlines in one moment, but the impact is no less for it in our university. #SaveHE #UKHE qmucu.org/2025/06/26/s...

We have serious concerns about this 👇

Just one example of 'the really sad loss of incredibly important specialist research groups doing important work that impacts lives and economies in all sorts of different ways.'

NEW: Confront investigation into the ongoing repercussions of the asbestos industry in UK universities. Decades after asbestos was banned we reveal the remaining asbestos still present on campuses, related illnesses, and enormous costs universities are left with. confrontpower.org/the-enduring...

That makes this infographic particularly galling. 'This stuff is all great and essential, but we're gonna... let it all fall apart'. Suuuure Jan, right you are. 🤷‍♂️ (3/3)

Vice Chancellor Larner wants Cardiff University to be a ‘living experiment’, as a ‘part social innovation lab, part corporate partnership innovation centre, part civic system transition space’ with constant ‘creative destruction and continual regeneration’

A brilliant take down of the reckless tech-bro optimism of Cardiff University management plans. 'A flagship national university cannot be run like a tech startup.' Indeed, *no* university should be run like that!

Now 99 universities officially making redundancies, and I've heard of a few more to take us over the 100 mark. If I were a student, I'd be 'shocked and offended' by that more than anything else. Still nothing is done. qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

We will continue to fight on behalf of our members’ jobs, conditions, and the academic disciplines being decimated with every tool at our disposal including consulting our members about future industrial action.

More disastrous news from the joke governance of our university system. Research cash per staff member will only be withheld if you make staff compulsorily redundant - thus hugely increasing the incentive to force them out via the constructive dismissal practices that we know are all too common.

Cardiff Uni “recently celebrated the news that Cardiff rose the rankings in the Complete University Guide, failing to realise that this is a reflection of the current operating model. In contrast, the proposal to worsen the Student:Staff Ratio wld see Cardiff’s ranking fall from 12th to ~107th” 😱

“When Patrick Younge, Chair of Council, asked the Vice Chancellor what she thought was the most overrated virtue, her answer was striking: “Prudence.” Knowing what we now know, this feels like a missed warning.”

NEW and major report out now about the situation in our universities, which is... not that good. It's clear that morale has collapsed, as predicted. There are of course all sorts of problems with self-report surveys, but this isn't surprising given that the HE topsoil has now been burned off. (1/3)

“Mass redundancies will trash the global reputation of UK universities” As @nickmegoran.bsky.social of writes, cuts aren’t just short-sighted they’re self-destructive. ✊ Join UCU and Fight back. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/mass...

As a member of Cardiff University academic staff, I’d be *very* keen to have an on-the-record conversation with the Chair of Council about whether he accurately represented my own views in his statement to Senedd last week. Who knows what else we could chat about! Please get in touch!

"the UEB have provided no market analysis or evidence that this will pay off, let alone if it’s even academically sustainable" Council decides on the 'Academic Futures' proposal today.

'A review into how the situation has been handled, commissioned by the university, found decision-making was unstructured and dominated by finances. The university said it accepted there had been "missteps".' Not the only university to harry in haste and repent at leisure.

‘Even academics with secure jobs don’t feel secure. Meanwhile, those of us on fixed-term contracts sit and wait for our funding to run out.’ Ed Kiely on precarity in higher education: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Impossible to regard this an anything other than a damning indictment of the managememt's proposals from the University's Senate. It will be interesting see if the University Council take any notice of the collective and unrivalled expertise and experience of their academic governing body 🧐

👀

A must-read.

'In evidence to the committee, Cardiff University vice chancellor Wendy Larner and its chair Patrick Younge said they did not regret the sweeping cuts proposals. They blamed the messenger for bad publicity.'

Not a quotation you'd expect in the Handbook of Good Leadership

Yesterday the VC was called to answer questions about Cardiff University management’s ongoing controversial cuts proposals from cross-party members of on the Senedd’s Children, Young People and Education Committee. 1/7

Yn dilyn canlyniadau arolwg UCU Caerdydd yn dangos bod yna argyfwng iechyd meddwl yn y Brifysgol, roedd Sion Jones ar newyddion S4C yn galw ar y Brifysgol i gymryd cyfrifoldeb llawn am ganlyniadau'r dewisiadau ac sydd wedi cael eu gwneud yn ystod y broses doriadau... 1/4

❗Yesterday Cardiff University Senate, the body responsible for upholding academic standards, voted to NOT recommend management’s toxic 'Academic Futures' cuts plan to Cardiff University Council.❗ The ball is now in Council’s court at its meeting next Tuesday, 17th.

BBC News coverage: 'Cardiff UCU has reported Cardiff University's University Executive Board (UEB) to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following a "comprehensive breakdown of trust and morale" between university bosses and staff'

A clear message in support of Ancient History at Cardiff from colleagues across the UK. The university Council decides on Ancient History's fate in 6 days' time, along with the provision of Religion & Theology, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

The third being: invest in their hugely overstretched mental health and wellbeing provision. This is an emergency 🚨, and that’s led us to take the unusual step of reporting the University to the Health and Safety Executive.

Me on BBC Radio Wales about the cuts-related mental health crisis at Cardiff Uni. If management want to show they’re listening they could do 3 very simple things: - take 400 staff out of scope for redundancy; and - pause its toxic Academic Futures plan. youtu.be/4_Wdet80-o4?...

Anything said about universities or science today in the CSR can be taken with a pinch of salt, as we are now moving towards a new and much deeper wave of cuts that will involve widespread compulsory redundancy. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cuts-en...

Dr Andy Williams @llantwit.bsky.social for Cardiff UCU on BBC Radio Wales this morning on the worrying mental health crisis among staff under the weight of the on-going cuts proposals

Academic staff working at Cardiff University have been so traumatised by the management of a hugely controversial cuts programme that some have contemplated suicide or having an abortion ✍️Martin Shipton

UCU Cardiff statement on today's announcement (1/8): “We have very serious concerns about the way that the University is rushing through these premature and ill-justified plans to restructure the University...

Solidarity with Bournemouth UCU. Staff are walking out for 4 days this month to defend over 200 jobs and protect students’ education. The university sits on a £150m surplus. These cuts are a choice. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bournem...

As this 3-part post is picking up quite a lot of commentary, a concrete suggestion. If you think UK universities need & deserve investment for teaching & research, write to your MP (and to the PM) to say so & to say why. If you need evidence of regional or other impact, just search this database:

The cuts at Newcastle are brutal and risk the future of an immensely important institution (in the #UKHE landscape; in local development; in the national economy). Do co-sign this petition to make visible its significance well beyond managerial spreadsheets. www.change.org/p/end-unnece...

Latest news, announced yesterday: Music and *some* Modern Languages provision to continue, while Ancient History, Religion and Theology still for the chopping board with no evidence to support the decision shown to staff. 1/6