University of Sheffield staff are now officially locked out! Please consider a small donation to help us continue our fight to save the university from the greed of corporate power! Please also share the link! @ucu.org.uk @sheffielducu.bsky.social www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...

Donate to Support University of Sheffield striking staff!, organized by Mark Pendleton

I'm the branch treasurer for the University of Sheffield University and… Mark Pendleton needs your support for Support University of Sheffield striking staff!

gofundme.com

While hundreds of staff have left University of Edinburgh amid £140m of budget cuts, senior managers spent £111,736 on travel and accommodation over the same period. These are not abstract numbers. They represent real jobs, real students, and real priorities.

Edinburgh Uni bosses spent more than £110,000 on travel last year

During this time period, bosses spoke publicly about the need to slash as much as £140 million, including £90m in staff costs, from the…

heraldscotland.com

How does it feel when your employer doesn't seem to be bothered about the risks to staff morale and retention caused by plans to steal pay and pensions? @northumbriauni.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social @moneyontheleft.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

“You can’t cut one in ten staff without damaging students and teaching.” 85% of University of Essex staff have voted for strike action over plans to cut 400 jobs and close the Southend campus. Show your support and solidarity as they prepare to fight back. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1432...

University of Essex staff vote for strike action in fight against job cuts

Staff at the University of Essex have voted to take industrial action in a dispute over plans axe 400 jobs, the University and College Union announced today

ucu.org.uk

Dreadful stuff from the Uni of Sheffield. Please do support the @sheffielducu.bsky.social crowdfunder if you can afford to do so.

Mark Pendleton@markpendleton.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...

Leicester UCU is back on the pickets on Thursday, 11-2pm: Join us at 1.30 near the library for a stellar teach-out on solidarity!

There must be a handbook that senior management work from on this, because it’s exactly the same as the UEA experience & now colleagues at Essex. Solidarity with everyone going through this absolute avoidable horror

Melissa Terras@melissaterras.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

The average salary among Russell Group leaders increased above £350,000 last year, despite these universities losing almost 7,000 staff members due to cost-cutting. Patrick Jack crunches the numbers #highered #academicsky https://ow.ly/gJK850XU77K

I'd also like to see figures on money spaffed on management consultants whilst universities slash budgets that support staff to actually deliver research and teaching.

Sir Nishan? Many of our members are shocked our VC is to be knighted during a grueling redundancy programme, with more consultations announced today! Only two months ago, 1,022 university members participated in a confidence vote and overwhelmingly voted ‘no confidence’ in him.

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk · 7mo ago

Leicester VC Prof Nishan Canagarajah gets a knighthood. A tribunal ruled three academics were unfairly dismissed during the same period and redundancies loom. Universities need investment and government intervention, not gongs.

'More universities have severed ties with fossil fuel companies, banning them from recruitment fairs and refusing to advertise roles in the industry, according to the latest higher education league table.'

Eight more UK universities cut recruitment ties with fossil fuel industry

Manchester Metropolitan University again wins top spot for climate and social justice in league table

theguardian.com

British Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...

Anna Aslanyan | On the Picket Line

On Monday morning, more than a hundred people formed a picket line outside one of the entrances to the British Library...

lrb.co.uk

Latest monthly visa application figures are out. Skilled workers? Still dropping. Health & care workers? Still dropping. Slow clap.

A Senate inquiry in Australia has found that corporatised universities have 'betrayed' students and staff. Good stuff. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

'Dirty secret' of higher education revealed as senate inquiry calls on universities to change

The final report into governance has called for state and Commonwealth legislation to refocus universities on teaching and research.

abc.net.au

Chief exec of OfS 'said the OfS believes there are 24 institutions at risk of exiting the market in the next 12 months, seven of which are large providers with more than 3,000 students. There are another 25 or so institutions of various sizes at risk over a two- to three-year period, she added.'

Seven ‘large providers’ at risk of going under in the next year

Skills minister says no higher education institutions are at imminent risk of collapse this year but OfS confirms more than 20 providers are being closely monitored

timeshighereducation.com

Some petitions to sign to protest Nottingham’s cuts! #AcademicSky Save Modern Languages - c.org/D5v6qstzyW Save Agriculture - c.org/bgxhcKVHYk

Sign the Petition

Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!

c.org

Dr Jared Jeyaretnam ⚛️🧪@jaredjeya.github.io · 9mo ago

I can't express how damaging this is, music and languages aren't just optional extras, they are at the core of what a university does: cultivate knowledge and culture in the next generation. And if they'll cut those, what's next? It's institutional self-destruction. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Although I am inevitably caught up in the likely dire implications for my department (Music), it isn’t just us in the Faculty of Arts or in the university under threat. Do consider signing this petition in support of colleagues teaching Theology! c.org/6kntRm2JVh

Sign the Petition

Stop the removal of Theology Undergraduate courses at the University of Nottingham

c.org

Save Nursing - c.org/HVr7Rfrhsz

Sign the Petition

Stop the suspension of Uni of Nottingham Mental Health & Child Nursing + Health Promotion

c.org

'While stating that a crackdown on the higher education sector could have a negative impact for the country at large, Centre for Cities said the impact would be more heavily felt in cities including Leicester, Plymouth, Hull and Stoke-on-Trent.' 1/2

Crackdown on international students could hurt struggling UK cities, thinktank warns

University sector, which is reliant on overseas students for a quarter of income, key to economic activity in cities like Leicester and Hull

theguardian.com

Once again, the prestigious universities have pillaged the market, to their own destruction as a brand and the detriment to the students they are recruiting but can't teach properly. All the while laying financial waste to the post-1992s that can. When is government going to step in and fix this?

Not tue students and not the universities that have spent decades building a particular brand. Meanwhile, the post-1992s *specialise* in taking often disadvantaged students and coverting them into high class graduates. That is the model. The funding regime has destroyed this to the detriment of all

To be fair, UKHEIs have made some truly terrible decisions, but ultimately the fault lies with the last government and this one for not fixing a broken funding model. The result will be more job losses at post-1992s, destroyed working conditions elsewhere and poor student outcomes.

Hello UK friends - please, please could you sign this petition against the job cuts at my place of work - 1 in 4 us will be out of a job by August next year if we don't stop the cuts. And once you've signed it, please share. We need your help! www.change.org/p/stop-mass-...

Sign the Petition

Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable

change.org

Great support from @staffsucu.bsky.social Aidan at our @ucu.org.uk lobby of the @mybcu.bsky.social governors today. Thank you Staffs for your ongoing support including your donation to our fighting fund! #SaveBCU

Inaccuracies ✅ Missing data ✅ This sounds so very, very familiar…

@bangorucu.bsky.social · last yr.

"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."" nation.cymru/news/staff-a...

If you're as concerned as me about the pace and scale of proposed staff cuts and department closures at UK universities, this piece arguing for a new regulatory framework is worth a read 👇 isrf.org/blog/a-new-r...

A New Regulatory Framework for University Cuts

isrf.org

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.

The report on failures at Dundee University is devastating. All sorts of financial, leadership and governance failures. And this ol’ indicator: ‘Female members of staff in particular, reported being spoken over, side-lined or discussed in public as being obstructive’ www.sfc.ac.uk?news=dundee-...

Dundee investigation report published - Scottish Funding Council

SFC Chief Executive welcomes “robust and comprehensive report” into financial position at the University of Dundee.

sfc.ac.uk

'The university has informed staff of plans to cut 400 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by July 2026, with academics the first to go.' Professor Andy Schofield, VC at Lancaster University since 2020, will take up position of Principal & VC at Glasgow University on 1 October 2025.

Lancaster University to cut one in five academic jobs

Institution says it is ‘not immune’ to financial challenges as it looks to axe 400 jobs

timeshighereducation.com