Completely agree. As previously discussed, I'll #don a tweed jacket or knitted jumper if it helps for visual academic style shorthand for any invites. The trade press is also really bad at representing these voices though I guess this is it's own thing.

For the record: the comms title we lost 😭

There are a series of petitions relevant to the troubling situation at our fellow East Midlands institution, please do sign them if you can

Anyway, vote YES/YES. We clearly need to shout as staff's attempts are being heard are being ignored otherwise.

Nearly two years of showing the realities of the gambles taken by these managers, ministers, and their consultants on the people who do the work of keeping the sector afloat: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo.... Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?

I find it hard to stay civil when employers suggest cutting DB pensions and replacing them with a DC, they did it at Durham for new staff on grades 5 and below which was a gendered attack on working-class people. It is cruel and nasty. Solidarity in resisting this!

From a @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social member: "it is wrong to frame this as saying staff will have options, when all options correspond to a significant reduction from the status-quo, and the status-quo corresponds to decades long losses in academic pay. This endangers the future of the UK academia."

Someone at a Russell Group university was moved to almost-poetry by their Faculty Meeting… Can anyone do better?

We're really staring at the abyss with how our employers in our sector are treating us.

Looking forward to this #UKHE event on December 4th.

"Labour defines the university as an economic engine, and then suspends the laws of capitalism to expect more output without new investment." 🤷🤷🤷 Reality not big on the agenda of Labour when it comes to #UKHE

This raises serious questions about governance, integrity, and accountability. The Joint Trade Unions have now formally requested: • an independent external investigation, and • an immediate return to negotiations with a fair and improved offer.

A significant new development in the Imperial College pay dispute. The Joint Trade Unions have uncovered that key 2018 pay benchmarking recommendations—based on extensive staff consultation—were quietly set aside by College management. Read the full update here: ucu.imperial.ac.uk/archives/1143

It's not just music and language courses- it's 48 courses across the university. But here's the thing- our UCU colleagues at other universities (like @Cardiffucu.bsky.social) have faced the exact same threats, fought back, and won. So we can too.

You know it's a pretty bad decision when the response from people is to create about 100 different petitions... Sign every one. Let's fight this by all means necessary.

I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social

On top of the organising we are already doing across the branch, members of the music faculty are doing their own work to address the disgusting cuts to their courses. Reach out if you want to support them!

The marvels that are @leigh-day.bsky.social are here! Brilliant legal minds who've been so supportive of many important fights for the soul of universities.

Documents show that for nearly two years Sheffield Hallam University complied with a demand from a Chinese Government foreign intelligence service to halt research about human rights abuses in China. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Gonna need someone to check the dictionary definition of 'to pre-empt' because what else is this but pre-empting the decision of Council? You'd hope those Council members don't appreciate having their hands tied like this. Because this is proper governance failure.

"the universities intend that London and South East niversity Group will use the existing legal names of the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent as the trading names for the two student-facing academic divisions corresponding to the current universities "

As expected - Greenwich is applying to change its name to ‘London and South East University Group’. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications... Kent is being absorbed into Greenwich. OfS label it a "merger" The new setup wants to keep the brands - "University of Kent" and "University of Greenwich"

We need a mandate, because managers and their consultants have pivoted the purpose of our institutions from research & education to prioritising financial gain over everything. Enough. Staff and students need to be central in the decision-making processes and priorities again. #SaveHE #WeAreTheUni

This ballot is a ballot for the soul of the university. A university does not exist without its staff. Yet staff are the ones who are being cut or made to snap under pressure. Enough. In fighting for dignity for staff we are fighting for the university. Join us and vote YES in the national ballot.

Why are you in academia in the first place? What is it that you want to protect about it? How do you ensure your expertise (in research, in teaching, in administration) is valued?

Why are YOU voting YES+YES in the current national ballot? We'd be keen to hear members' voices. Pitch your blogpost here: forms.gle/1a8q7HYF76g2... #WeAreTheUniversity #UKHE #UCU

Note the ‘British soil’ bit. My uni has plans to open a campus in China. The VC scoffed at me when I expressed concern that staff and students wouldn’t be able to speak freely, and that - as he said - the curriculum would be censored. It’s the price of doing business.

Hard to think that anybody with experience of UK university senior managements would have confidence that, left to themselves, they'd back academic freedom over an income stream.

Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities. It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/

This entire thread is exactly what's happening in UK universities. It's like they're being run by people who have no idea what university lecturers or even universities actually do. We're not teachers with a fixed syllabus. We're researchers and educators.

Our brilliant post-graduate and casualised staff organisers are now here! Give them a follow: @qm-pact.bsky.social

important (and perhaps obvious) sidenote to the recent Sheffield Hallam case — foreign governments are not the only groups who may want to discourage critical research conducted at universities

If you missed it, here’s the interim Principal talking about substantial future job cuts at University of Dundee. He refers to the number of job losses recommended in the recovery plan. This is 390FTE with 340FTE via redundancies. We believe redundancies are not necessary. #SaveHE #SaveDundeeUni

Yep. The self-censoring and anticipatory compliance by universities, citing ‘commercial interest’ and risk, is part of the curtailing of academic freedom. It might not be as visible as gag orders or leave a paper trail like law suits, but the effect is the same. We need a secure funding system.

As universities and colleges cut academic programs, close programs, and slash 13,000+ jobs, Budget 2025 halves international student enrolment without boosting core funding.

While #ANU was sacking staff due to a "financial crisis", they were also investing in weapons manufacturers. The rest of the world lamented the breakdown of a ceasefire in Gaza, but ANU saw an opportunity to make a quick buck. Unconscionable. @nteunion.bsky.social

Support UCU’s strike at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Great turnout at what I’m guessing is the UK’s most northerly pickets! #SaveUHI #SaveHE

“Four years ago, we suffered an earlier redundancy programme that we were told would secure the future of the university. That clearly was not true." #UKHE www.leicester.news/university-o...

BREAKING: Scores of jobs could be lost at Strathclyde University after the institution identified a £35 funding gap @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2559597...

Undergraduates studying the media examine this as a key part of their degrees. This is another reason why the humanities are important.

Dozens of staff stood up and displayed these signs at the beginning of today’s address by the VC to demonstrate their lack of confidence in him and his ability to impose such devastating staff cuts across the university.

Why are YOU voting YES+YES in the current national ballot? We'd be keen to hear members' voices. Pitch your blogpost here: forms.gle/1a8q7HYF76g2... #WeAreTheUniversity #UKHE #UCU

This may help with the discussions with colleagues. Ten reasons to vote Yes c/o @ucu-solidarity.bsky.social ucusolidaritymovement.org/2025/10/25/h...

Solidarity to my colleagues and good friends at Dundee. It's a sair fecht but the Workers & students cannot pay for the revolving door of management ineptitude. The toxic arrogant top down management culture in parts of HE needs rooting out and replacing with democratic accountability

Bought some ice cream from the cornershop & posted my @ucu.org.uk ballot. As my dept rep said this week, pensions took 5 years to win, we've got to be dogged & stubborn even when we're tired. There's no way (higher) education will get better without education workers fighting for it #WeAreTheUni

“Staff are striking next week to defend jobs, and to demand, a year after they first learnt about the debacle caused by the university’s leadership, that university senior managers finally rule out the use of compulsory redundancies.” 3/3 #SaveHE #SaveDundeeUni

Throughout the past year, staff have continued to teach students and carry out world-leading research while not knowing if their job is secure. 2/3

News that further job cuts are coming is just another shocking revelation in a year when staff have been told one thing only to be told something different over the number of jobs to be cut and the need for compulsory redundancies. DUCU co-president, Melissa D’Ascenzio news.stv.tv/north/dundee...

Have you found your very pink envelop yet? Read the explanation of why we need to make sure staff doesn’t get ignored in the sector and hit those YES boxes with an X.

Yet Universities Scotland insist in a letter to the Scottish Parliament that “robust, inclusive and transparent financial management and governance processes are in place across the sector.” www.parliament.scot/-/media/file...