What we are seeing at Birmingham is part of a wider pattern across the sector: 5–10% headcount reduction targets, Professional Services restructures running ahead of academic restructures, and reviews of Languages and Music provision. Branches are comparing notes because the playbook repeats. 1/4

After BUCU published its post on the University’s restructuring plans, management wrote demanding that we take it down. Weeks later, they have still not identified a single factual inaccuracy in the piece. The post is staying up. 1/4

BUCU has been collecting member feedback on the revised PDR process, which has been rolled out without agreement with unions. The clear message so far: it is more burdensome, less clear and more focused on institutional PR than on genuine development. 1/3

USS, governance and transparency aren’t abstract issues for us at Birmingham – decisions taken by the Board shape our retirement income and the employer’s contribution to it.

Next BUCU General Meeting: Tuesday 14 May, 1pm (online). We’ll be discussing pensions, the new PDR process and the University’s restructuring plans – members, please prioritise attending and share the details in your areas.

On Tuesday 19 May, UCU-appointed USS trustee directors Helen Shay, Sam Marsh and David Watts are visiting campus for a pensions event at Birmingham. Before the event they’ve offered to meet BUCU members to take questions on USS and the wider pensions picture. 1/2

South and City College Birmingham UCU members are taking further strike action as part of the New Deal for FE Campaign. FE workers deserve fair pay and workload protections. Stand with SCCB colleagues. #Solidarity

Solidarity with Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) - a consortium of activists and academics working tirelessly to promote racial justice in our city. Learn more: wearebrig.co.uk #RacialJustice #Birmingham #Solidarity

On 16 May, we're opposing Tommy Robinson's march in Central London. Coach booking available from Birmingham. Half a million marched against the far right on 28 March - the biggest in British history. We stand together again. #AntiFascism #Solidarity

Restructures at UoB aren't just an academic issue. Academic-related staff — professional services, technical, specialist roles — are often hit hardest. 3 Faculties means reorganised reporting lines, merged teams, and real job insecurity.

Professional services colleagues: when they say "restructure", history tells us who bears the cost. It's rarely the senior leadership. Birmingham UCU stands with academic-related members. Know your rights. Talk to your rep. We're here. #UCU #UoB

A message to academic-related staff at UoB: restructuring from 5 Colleges to 3 Faculties will reshape professional services. Your role, your team, your grade — all potentially affected. Don't wait to find out. Get involved with Birmingham UCU now.

28 April is International Workers’ Memorial Day. We remember the dead, and fight for the living – including against psychosocial hazards like stress, overwork, insecurity, bullying and surveillance at work. Strong laws, strong enforcement, strong unions save lives.

A move from 5 Colleges to 3 Faculties is not just a tidying exercise. Restructures create redundancy risk, workload intensification, and disciplinary marginalisation.

The University of Birmingham has published plans to restructure from 5 Colleges to 3 Faculties, with any new structure expected from 2027/28. Birmingham UCU is watching closely. This affects every member. 🧵 1/5

f you’re worried about restructures in your area: keep contemporaneous notes of meetings, talk to colleagues you trust, and contact UCU early. The sooner we know what’s brewing, the more we can do together – including pushing for transparency and fair processes.

Restructures treat departments as interchangeable boxes on a chart, but staff hold deep local knowledge, research networks and community links that can’t be ‘reallocated’ overnight. Once that’s broken, it’s hard to rebuild. That’s why staff must have a real say in any changes.

Restructures often hit precarious, disabled, migrant and racially minoritised staff hardest – the very colleagues already carrying the heaviest burden. Before any changes, management must publish equality impact assessments and act on them.

True consultation on restructures means staff and unions can shape the aims, timelines and criteria, and proposals can change substantially. If decisions feel predetermined and feedback is ignored, that’s not consultation – it’s rubber‑stamping.

Demanding that university leaders stay 'neutral' while our sector faces a jobs crisis, course closures, and creeping marketisation is not neutrality — it's complicity. Staff and students need leadership with a spine, not a regulator that protects the powerful.

Tomorrow - Lunchtime social Step away from your desk and have lunch with other BUCU members. All welcome 12-1pm Cafe Aroma, 1st floor, staff building.

The market model in UK HE means crises at one institution can ripple across the whole sector. Solidarity with colleagues at branches fighting redundancies and course closures this week – your fight is our fight.

AI in our workplaces must be negotiated with staff, not imposed on us. We'll be encouraging UoB management to engage with this framework — members' expertise and job security must be protected. #AcademicSky

Universities don't need to appease populism — they need to demonstrate genuine public value. That means fair pay for staff, accessible education, and genuine community engagement.

This is a deeply concerning pattern — using TUPE as a mechanism to erode terms and conditions while avoiding statutory protections. Birmingham UCU stands with Coventry UCU. This is why every member counts. ✊

Durham UCU nailing it. Academic freedom means nothing if it only applies when it's convenient for management. UCU members at Birmingham and across the sector will keep speaking truth to power. #AcademicFreedom

Solidarity with our colleagues at Northumbria UCU Branch fighting to protect their pensions! Northumbria management is trying to force staff out of the Teachers' Pension Scheme — an attack on workers across the whole post-92 sector. ✊ 1/2

V-C says the quiet but out loud

Consultants tell management: unbundle teaching, outsource services, chase high‑fee markets, financialise the estate. Staff and students are just “costs” in a value chain to be carved up.

UCU, Unison, Unite, GMB and EIS have now submitted the joint HE pay and conditions claim to UCEA for 2026–27, covering pay, redundancies, casualisation, workload and equality pay gaps. ​ Negotiations start on 31 March

UCU is running an anti‑casualisation webinar on unpaid labour, ableism and gendered cultures in academia on Wed 25 March (12:00). If you’re BUCU on a fixed‑term, hourly paid or GTA contract, Send a DM and we’ll send you the registration details.

Tomorrow - Lunchtime social Step away from your desk and have lunch with other BUCU members. All welcome 12-1pm Cafe Aroma, 1st floor, staff building.

Potential College restructure at UoB will affect academic staff, professional services, students and our wider civic role. Birmingham UCU will be actively gathering members’ thoughts, questions and concerns over the coming weeks to inform our position in any formal consultation.

REF and workload are inseparable. If the university wants staff to produce submissible research outputs, the workload model has to guarantee the time to do that – not just in principle, but in enforceable practice.

The university has announced a major restructure of the college system. Details are thin, but the potential impacts are not. BUCU is collecting information and concerns from members – how do you see this affecting your area?

Draft Code of Practice for REF29 is out, and the university is seeking feedback. BUCU is coordinating a branch response – if you have concerns or suggestions, now is the time to feed them in.

Looks like we are not the only people to take issue with the V-C's reported comments on funding for students who lack a-levels

We recognise management’s right to review structures, but any major restructure must be genuinely co‑produced with staff, trade unions and students from the earliest stages – not presented as a near‑final package. That is the standard Birmingham UCU will insist on.

BUCU General Members’ Meeting this Wednesday 11 March, 12–1pm (online). We’ll be discussing Congress motions, the new REF29 Code of Practice, and the university’s proposed major restructure. All members welcome.

On International Women’s Day and every day, we stand with Women Against the Far Right, Birmingham Black Sisters and all who organise against fascism and gendered violence in our city.

Tomorrow - Lunchtime social Step away from your desk and have lunch with other BUCU members. All welcome 12-1pm Cafe Aroma, 1st floor, staff building.

Birmingham UCU met with the Provost on 6 March to hear early plans for possible changes to the College structure at UoB. We’re engaging members now so your views shape our response from the very start. We will be inviting members and non-members to an open meeting in the coming days

Midlands Together Against the Far Right International Women's Day 🗓 Sunday 8 March, 12:00 📍 Assemble: Victoria Square, Birmingham Bring colleagues, friends, placards and banners. Let’s show that our campuses and communities are united against misogyny, racism and the far right.

@julietterowsell.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social @chrishavergal.bsky.social We are planning to get some words to you soon in response to V-C Tickell's reported comments about "bad risk" students "not really capable of graduating"

Today’s @theguardian.com piece reports our VC suggesting a review of student loans for people entering HE without A‑levels and saying some are “not really capable of graduating”. This is a dangerous way to frame students. ​

UCU is joining the Together Alliance national demo on 28 March in London. Trade unionists, community activists, faith leaders, musicians — all marching together against the rise of the far right. Coaches from Birmingham

Public talk on accent bias in HE, led by Christian Ilbury from the University of Edinburgh, at the University of Birmingham, UK, at 6pm on 29th April. I have long been aware that our students (and staff) who speak with local accents experience discrimination. www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/tackl...

📢 Birmingham UCU members – the Employment Rights Act 2025 is now live and it’s a big shift for us in HE. Key points for staff at UoB: Unfair dismissal: qualifying service will fall to 6 months and the cap on compensation is going, increasing the risk to employers who sack staff unfairly. 1/4

In the 2025/26 People & Planet University League, the University of Birmingham scored zero for trade union involvement in sustainability governance. Staff voice is missing. BUCU is calling for a joint union–management sustainability group so workers have a real say

Tomorrow - Lunchtime social Step away from your desk and have lunch with other BUCU members. All welcome 12-1pm Cafe Aroma, 1st floor, staff building.