UCU are not affiliated to the Labour Party (and therefore does not attend women’s conference) but if we were then we would be supporting this stance by our brilliant sister unions. Solidarity to them and the whole trans and non binary community.

"Humanities are being extinguished by university bosses across the country. We desperately need an emergency rescue package to stop the death-rattle of Britain's great universities." @drjogrady.bsky.social in the Guardian 👇 www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

theguardian.com

For decades UCU has called for a balanced and funded education system. This is why we welcome Burnham’s announcement today. It must be matched by real investment - including in staff wages. And we cannot allow working class children who aspire to breakdown class barriers to be left behind either.

This is Farage openly attempting to remove all standards and fair questioning of those holding public office in the UK, and he is willing to abuse and manipulate the people of Clacton to do this. He is right. Britain is broken and it’s because of people like him.

Universities up and down the UK are quietly moving staff out of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme to cut costs. Christine Blower co-chair of our Parliamentary Group, put it straight to the government. Pensions aren’t a cost cutting exercise. They’re staff’s terms and conditions. Hands off.

A damning 97%. That's how many University of Lincoln staff who voted have lost confidence in senior management, after the university cut a third of its workforce and refused to rule out more compulsory redundancies. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1454...

Staff at Northumbria University are being balloted for strike action. ✊ UCU has declared a dispute over plans to cut 1 in 10 jobs before Christmas with management refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies. Fewer staff, more work, less pay. Worse for students. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1454...

Staff going off sick with burnout. People leaving the sector for good. And the workloads left behind only get heavier. This is the reality for further education staff. Unmanageable. Unsustainable. And getting worse. Is your workload a problem? Tell us here: yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/Workload-...

Happy Father’s Day to possibly the best dad ever 💘

Nine years on and still no justice. We will never forget them. We will not stop fighting for them.

The very same vice-chancellors will be congratulating each other and telling themselves that taking ‘difficult decisions’ like this is what makes them worth their £350k salaries.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2mo ago

'Vice-chancellors have said they may need to cut hardship support for impoverished students and reduce outreach activities aimed at disadvantaged groups if the dire funding struggles at universities continue.' Great look. Read the room (sic) messaging calculated to alienate public support. 1/2

Another sterling statement from @ucu.org.uk and @drjogrady.bsky.social. Trans, non-binary, and intersex workers in the UK have rights. They are not negotiable, they are not conditional, and they will be defended by your union.

University and College Union (UCU)@ucu.org.uk · 3mo ago

Equality is not conditional. Dignity at work is not negotiable. The EHRC Code of Practice has been published. UCU is examining it urgently. This is a significant and unsettling moment and we will not leave branches to navigate it alone. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1451...

Jo Grady on LBC: “Wages have stagnated. Pensions stripped. Workers fired and rehired. Solent University is using current legislation to force staff into a sham subsidiary company with the express intent of taking their pension away.This is happening in workplaces all over the country.”

Equality is not conditional. Dignity at work is not negotiable. The EHRC Code of Practice has been published. UCU is examining it urgently. This is a significant and unsettling moment and we will not leave branches to navigate it alone. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1451...

UC Berkeley Law creates new AI policy that bans AI for "conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit" or exams because "thinking remains the sine qua non of good lawyering (and of a quality legal education)." That's what I'm talking about.

Today @drjogrady.bsky.social wrote to the University of Reading. Trans staff and students are being forced into formal grievances just to find out why policies that affect their daily lives exist. That is not legal compliance. It is institutional opacity. We’re calling on Reading to act.

Nearly half of our universities are forecasting deficits. Institutions across the country are closing departments and issuing redundancy notices. The government don’t yet consider this a crisis. How many more jobs must be lost before ministers act?

University of Hertfordshire UCU@uhertfordshireucu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Today staff in the School of Creative Arts, including the Humanities department, were called to a redundancy consultation meeting. We were informed that 23 posts were to go by August this year, with further redundancies as the Humanities programmes are taught out over 2 years.

URGENT - UCU St Andrews Member - Antonis Vradis is on the Qannir La Cirena boat in the Global Summid Flotilla which has been intercepted by Israel Contact your MP and MSP Contact the Principal Please share

Labour say further education is central to their growth mission. But they're cutting adult education budgets. Staff are haemorrhaging from the sector and FE workers in England are paid less than anywhere else in the UK.

Join the #Nakba78 march this Saturday. 78 years since the Nakba. Tommy Robinson on the streets. Trade unions have to show up. Exhibition Road, 12pm. Join us.

Good piece, brief and to the point from @drjogrady.bsky.social Gen Sec of UCU: “We are calling for direct government intervention before the crisis spirals further.” Intervention is cheaper than most think, and pound for pound excellent investment in our future economic prosperity.

The government must intervene before the universities crisis worsens

During moments of political crisis it’s often said there are weeks when decades happen. This has been one such week.

politicshome.com

It’s the biggest con going that Nigel Farage has managed to flog himself as ‘man of the people’

James O’Brien@mrjamesob.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Nigel Farage’s partner, a former waitress not known to have any private money, bought a £1 million house for cash shortly after he secretly received £5 million from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire - the same house that he claimed, months previously, that he was about to pay for himself.

Tens of thousands at risk of redundancy Student debt out of control Dozens of Universities on the brink The government is standing by as the Higher Education Sector is suffering death by a thousand cuts Organising is our only option - join UCU today join.ucu.org.uk

TODAY: #UCU Anticasualisation Committee are hosting a 1 hour webinar, 12-1pm, on ‘subject to funding’ open ended contracts. Our very own @highamian.bsky.social will share experiences from LSE, followed by Q&A and discussion. Recording will be made available. More info and reg: www.ucu.org.uk/ACC

Yesterday Kier Starmer announced Labour will nationalise British Steel, and save 2700 jobs. Today, the Uni of Nottingham put 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. This is just one university. Across the UK 15,000 higher education jobs need saving. Where is the rescue package for our universities?

Please sign!

University of Hertfordshire UCU@uhertfordshireucu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Petition to save the Humanities at the University of Hertfordshire: c.org/9JLppW5tMS

A new low as the University of Nottingham puts 2700 staff at risk of redundancy. Cuts and job losses are not inevitable. They are political choices and the manifestation of a broken system. Where is Labour as the crisis intensifies? Sitting on the sidelines, watching it burn.

If you honestly believe that the answer to Reform and the challenges Labour faces is to elect Mandelson’s mate Wes Streeting, then you might as well hand Farage the keys to number 10 now. The party - but more importantly the country - needs an open debate.

Poverty pay for staff. A £10,000 pay rise for the principal. That is why Windsor Forest Colleges Group staff were on the picket lines today. Refused even the smallest pay rise for college teachers and rewarded with a senior role at the Department for Education.

Dozens of professors face the axe at Teesside University with cuts possible as soon as next month. Management claims strong finances yet staff are being pushed out at speed. You don't strip decades of experience overnight without consequences. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1449...