Plans to cut mental health courses at the University of East Anglia have been criticised as “short-sighted” and a “dereliction of civic responsibility”. More on the proposed Clinical Psychology course closures at UEA via @timeshighered.bsky.social - www.timeshighereducation.com/news/closure...

Not again. What on earth is going on at UEA? @uea-ucu.bsky.social @qmucu.bsky.social yet another one for the list.

Our branch has declared no confidence in UCU’s SMT to protect the well-being of staff, nor in its commitment to improving industrial relations. With the increasing victimisation of our reps, and SMT now repeatedly imposing changes in working conditions and policies, our dispute continues.

Oh, here's a shock: Higher Education has a management problem because its culture is saturated with bullying and bad practice. Dundee's Gillespie is just the particular person acting as a lightning rod here.

What we're doing in the uni sector is shutting off routes for kids with Bs and Cs to do key (and prestigious) subjects, and closing down the ability of young people to go to the local uni just when it becomes ruinous expensive to go way. Will have incalculable consequences for social mobility.

Oh it does, minister, and it shows them that for you their only value is as money bags from the rest of the world to subsidise the sector you’re not properly resourcing. The value we see in international students in the brilliant minds, the experience they bring, the connections they make for life

Other VCs, it can be done!

In use at many UK universities right now

REF 2029: splitting staff from outputs ‘distressing’ in jobs crisis. Decision to hold fast on portability prompts criticism over potential impact on early career researchers. One of our most-read articles this week. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Reported on by the excellent @alasdairclark.bsky.social at The Courier here www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politics/...

✊🥂Huge congratulations to the whole @newcastleucu.bsky.social membership and team. Compulsory redundancies withdrawn. Sends a message to university management everywhere. Just shows what you can do with organisation, solidarity, and right on your side.

Indeed. A familiar set of traits in HE “leaders”.

The interim boss of the University of Dundee has resigned after an external investigation blamed a “hierarchical and over-confident” leadership style on the institution’s cash crisis. @julietterowsell.bsky.social reports #AcademicSky #EduSky

Our tribute to our former colleagues, lost to a "voluntary" severance process under the shadow of compulsory redundancy. Each figure is a colleague gone, each door a vacancy closed to rehiring.

REF 2029: splitting staff from outputs ‘distressing’ in jobs crisis. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Meaningful consultation appears to be lacking in HE.

So, redundancy notices have landed in the inboxes of eight UEA colleagues…a saving of a small fraction of % of annual running costs Really quite shaming on my own university management that they’ve continued to push for this - & the consequences on peoples’ lives - rejecting other reas alternatives

Missing in action at the University of Dundee. 1) Voluntary Severance scheme: Due 26 May 2025 2) Any details of Restructured Professional Services: Announced on 1 Apr 2025 3) Financial Statements to July 2024: Due January 2025. 4) Equality.

Disgraceful. So much for Athena Swan and EIA.

UK HE international recruitment processes are corrupt. They were used to enrich management and sold to staff as the only reason they are not made redundant. Now the system is falling apart.

“At UEA, it is understood that 22 staff are earning more than £150k and 4 staff are on £205k. At a time when university managers are pushing through large-scale job cuts, this is frankly obscene”

Oh! We so seldom get to share good news! But Glasgow managed to stave off compulsory redundancies and is developing a trial with the ucu branch to move some research staff onto open-ended contracts. 🥳 It IS possible! qmucu.org/qmul-transfo... #UKHE

University accounting teams react to news of a new government tax especially just for them.

Redundancies remain on the table at UEA. "It’s time for UEA management to do the right thing, drop the threats, engage meaningfully, and commit to real accountability." @drjogrady.bsky.social Solidarity with all striking staff. ✊ #SaveUEA #UCU

⁉️Why are students at UEA supporting members of staff on strike? 📽️Watch this video to hear from the amazing students who came to join lecturers and professional services staff on the picket line. 📣Stop the cuts! #SaveUEA

UK universities are where ambition goes to die Still more cutting @aberdeenuni Nothing says 'world-class institution' like gutting departments & calling it strategy Scottish & Welsh universities are in huge trouble www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yet more evidence that 'property not people' is the management mantra in UK universities. Accounting moves that make 'capital expenditure' appear separate from day-to-day spending underpin redundancy programmes to reduce running costs.

It gets worse… Members back at work today after taking lawful strike action are now being threaten with disciplinary procedures if their auto-replies mention the reason for their absence during future strikes. In what trade union world is this acceptable?

🎙️"Compulsory redundancies [...] would represent a new low in the history of the institution." 🎧 Nick Grant, co-chair of UEA UCU, explains on BBC Radio Norfolk why staff at the university are taking strike action. 🚩Resisting further cuts is in the interests of both staff and students. #SaveUEA

Yikes! And unacceptable @ucu.org.uk

Come catch us on the picket line again tomorrow! (There may be cake)

WTF? Disgusting.

🚩Nadine Zubair, UEA UCU co-chair, writes for the BBC: 📣"We will use our strike day to celebrate staff, to remind the employer that we are the university, that we matter, and that we have a clear and unified voice." ✊Join us on Weds 26th March. #SaveUEA www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📣UEA UCU Day of Action: Join us from 8am outside AHB on Weds 26th. 🚩We are striking for our colleagues at risk of redundancy. 🚩We are striking to protect the education of our students. 🚩We are striking for a better future for UEA. ✊Join us. #SaveUEA

Solidarity!

📣REMINDER FOR UEA UCU MEMBERS! 📣Our industrial action will begin with a day of strike action on Wednesday 26th March. 📣We will commence continuous action short of a strike (ASOS) from this date. 📣Further details to follow. #SaveUEA #UKHE

How on earth do these senior managers keep blaming everyone but themselves? Happy to take the six-figure salaries, discretionary funds, and paid-for travel across the planet. But not happy to have the actual responsibility that supposedly justifies those nauseating salaries.

🏛️Higher Education News🏛️ Bolton Council hears University of Greater Manchester probe

Today our members voted to call on the University of Sheffield to cap salaries at £135k, as well as a range of other concrete measure that will reduce spending without cutting jobs.

A message from @ducuuo.bsky.social 📢 We're calling on university management to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies 🔥

The BBC visited and reported our picket line this morning. The comment from the University is wrong. We have already lost colleagues and many more are being threatened with redundancies. We’re acting now to save your jobs, our jobs at the University of Dundee. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Strike ballot opens today at University of Sheffield 📣 1,000 staff at risk of redundancy 🚨 "The leadership of this university needs to hold itself accountable for what it is doing to staff", branch president Robyn Orfitelli 🗣️

University leaders have pushed the sector to the brink Our members can help rebuild it but universities need to start making decisions democratically & transparently Excellent piece from @uea-ucu.bsky.social who have won their largest ever mandate for strike action.

A union isn't an outside organization that comes in to help you. A union is YOU and your colleagues coming together to empower each other as a collective. And that's way more powerful.

“HR are not on your side” is probably the singular most importantly thing that employees need to know these days.

Solidarity with colleagues at Cardiff. This is horrifying.

For those of you (not) following along at home, job losses in UK Higher Education now significantly exceed job losses in Steel. A rough count through this list (I'm sure someone has a better count) adds up to more than 7500, with more announced everyday. UK HE shrinking search.app/Yfg3QSQrpkfv...

UK Universities “‘They’re hopeless’, one Labour insider told me before the general election. In the eyes of many on the left, they lost the plot on excessive vice chancellor pay and perks, student experience and teaching quality.” #UKHE #AcademicSky #PhDSky #HigherEd