Vicky Blake UCU (she/her)
@vickyblake.bsky.social
♥️education ♥️unions ♥️democracy Widening Participation @ Leeds Uni UCU NEC, negotiator, Educ'n Comm Chair, Climate+Ecological Emergency Comm Co-chair @leedsucu Branch Sec vickyblakeucu.uk Neurodivergent, LC #EduSky #AbortionIsHealthcare #CleanTheAir
Many more people in universities will lose their jobs if nothing changes in the way HE is (under) funded. Even more prospective students will not be able to go to university, especially here in the Norheast. @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social @markfergusonmp.bsky.social @chionwurah.bsky.social
If you’re at #Tolpuddle pop along to our #UCU stall where we are playing Workload Bingo, talking about issues that matter to members, and how we can work and organise across sectors + unions. Bags, caps, beanies & lanyards in return for suggested donations to the fighting fund tinyurl.com/UCUfund
OOOOO. Exeter's got Nous in as well... Of course... (@exeterucu.bsky.social, have you FOIed how much they're paid?) Can we PLEASE put an end to the involvement of these consultancies? They have done nothing but vandalism.
A best practice approach to academic restructure at Exeter
Explore Part 2 of Exeter Uni's major transformation case study. Learn how collaboration & strategic alignment drove restructure.
nousdatainsights.com
I've not been here much recently but popping back to ask if anyone can spare a donation for or share a friend's crowdfunder for urgently needed medical care complicated by #EhlersDanlos. She's been housebound for months & really struggling to access care she needs www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/9lxXdpEl
Medical treatment
I need to raise money to pay for private physio therapy and to get me to turkey to decompress my spine and fuse my pelvis.
crowdfunder.co.uk
#OtD 15 Aug 1913 William Murphy, Ireland's most prominent capitalist, sacked 40 workers for union membership, and later another 300. It led to one of the biggest industrial disputes in Irish history involving 20,000 workers stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8646...
Enjoying the opening session of #NEONsymposium2026 with the upbeat chairing of NEON’s director Martin Webster. NEON doesn’t seem to be on Bluesky / #EduSky, but perhaps others attending are? (Think NEON focus more on LinkedIn etc now)
🚨DR UK's Statement on the EHRC's New Code of Practice "We are appalled at implications that an adequate workaround is trans people using Disabled toilets instead. We will not be used as a loophole in the wider erosion of trans rights." Full statement👇 www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/disabil...
Everyone has the right to protect themselves by wearing a respirator. We need safer concerts. Thank you to @mudlarklives.bsky.social for his account.
Semperoper Dresden is refusing to allow me to my seat wearing this. It's "streetwear".
2,700 letters sent last month warning staff that they are at risk of redundancy, with Nottingham senior management's goal to shed 608 academic posts, following the 350 professional services staff lost last year. 1/3
‘Careers are going up in flames’: inside Nottingham’s cuts crisis
With hundreds of jobs on the line and dozens of courses at risk, staff living through one of the biggest university restructuring projects of recent years fear they are shouldering the blame for wider...
timeshighereducation.com
🧵 Public science in the US has taken some heavy hits over the last year, but the White House OMB is proposing a series of changes that will result in a TKO for science as we know it unless we fight back. Here's what's happening, and why it matters. 1/n
𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗛𝗘 Guest Speakers: * Lopa Leach, President, University of Nottingham UCU * Tom Hickey, Convention for Higher Education 2016-17 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆, 𝟲𝗽𝗺 Zoom: bit.ly/UCUSM_org Build Solidarity with MABbing Branches Build a Grassroots Political Campaign to Save HE
Open Online Activist Meeting to Save HE Tuesday 19 May, 6pm Zoom: bit.ly/UCUSM_org
As the crowdfunder for the first radical bookshop icon Newcastle for 40 years gets closer to the end I’m making the bold move of calling on all the academics I sort of vaguely know and also those I don’t to share the link for our crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
@ulsteruni.bsky.social - Announces intention to make 450 colleagues redundant University decimated 🤬😡 @caoimhearchibald.bsky.social @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social
"This pattern raises serious concerns that certain market participants may have had access to material nonpublic information regarding a market-moving geopolitical event..." www.npr.org/2026/04/10/n...
Throughout the last five years, if you ever want to check the truth of a situation- follow the money. The insurance companies haven’t glossed over either COVID or Climate change.
Australian federal and state senate inquiries have generated some useful resources on Nous, including details of how much unis pay for UniForum (and how little they understand it), and some largely underacted copies of a small number of reports Nous prepared for ANU: www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStor...
Queen's in Canada has done some of the resource-gathering about Nous: qcaa.ca/resources/no... But yes, we need a list. Because Nous itself has become *very* evasive in whom they're selling their nonsense to, no longer naming even when using 'testimonies' in casestudies: nousgroup.com/case-studies
Nous Group and UniForum
Resource List ResourceDescriptionExcerptDeb Verhoeven and Ben Eltham. “Nousferatu”: Are corporate consultants extracting the lifeblood from universities?Analysis of the ‘vampiric’ tende…
qcaa.ca
It is past time to do a power mapping of which consultants are advising which universities, and which Super Efficiency Optimizing Plans they're laying out as their Burger King menu of options
🧵 Thoughtful blog post by someone with #LongCovid & #MEcfs. Initially focuses on describing the PEM effects of working 3 days in a row before discussing how the whole illness(es) & the effect it's having on his life is making him feel emotionally centerleftstack.substack.com/p/the-debt-c... #PEM 1/
A lovely thing: I found a small bottle of Mum’s long discontinued perfume from when she was a young woman into the 90s, in good condition on eBay. Gave it to her today and she sniffed it on her wrists with a gorgeous smile and said “it’s me”. Looking for the bright spots where we can really helps.
The Certification Officer has issued his decision in Blake & McGaughey v UCU. My initial response is here: vickyblakeucu.uk/2026/03/31/t... I urge members to read the full ruling rather than relying on the summary emailed to all members by HQ today. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69cbcb...
The Certification Officer’s ruling: Blake & McGaughey v UCU
The Certification Officer has now issued his decision in Blake and McGaughey v UCU. One complaint was upheld in part as a technical breach. The rest were dismissed, and no rerun or further remedy w…
vickyblakeucu.uk
So, a dinosaur, a chicken, and a bee walked into a picket line.... Don't actually have a punchline but they were Bee-ing a good colleague Saving jobs from extinction Calling out foul play
Some of our lovely creative signs in support of LINCS, languages & cultural studies, opposing cuts and highlighting that the number of management staff paid over £100,000 has increased, again. #loveLINCS
Why is it so seismic for the Covid inquiry to state this week that ‘Covid is airborne’? 1. It means that we never had the correct advice to protect ourselves and still don’t! Covid hasn’t stopped being airborne. 2. It means so much could have been prevented. 3. It means healthcare has been …
In what should be a surprise to no one, the US and Israeli attack on Iran has serious climate consequences. Our new analysis, covered in @theguardian.com this morning, tallies the climate costs of the first two weeks of the attacks.
US and Israel’s war on Iran is a disaster for the environment, analysis shows
Exclusive: War has led to 5m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in two weeks and is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined
theguardian.com
At the beautiful Pitman’s Parliament (@redhillsdurham.bsky.social) in Durham for the North East, Yorkshire & Humber TUC AGM this weekend representing @ucu.org.uk with colleagues from our region. Got here early to take some pics before we got started - conference is now underway …
I’d really love to know how the decisions to remove references in public health information to the possibility of airborne transmission of a disease like meningitis are made, and accounted for, especially when there is an outbreak. H/t @peteuk7.bsky.social who posted these on X/twitter: