UCU colleagues - perhaps a useful discussion? Locally (and anecdotally), we have some people in the public sector, many ended up retiring. Some have visiting posts at other universities. Others got admin jobs at other universities.

will pooley@willpooley.bsky.social · 10h ago

does anyone know of any work that’s been done on career trajectories of (UK humanities) academics who have been made redundant? eg information about how many go into school teaching, early retirement, independent research? appreciate this is complex, sensitive and much data is too recent

The government has effectively outsourced HE policy to consultants, including Nous, KPMG and others. At Exeter it’s Nous www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

‘Nousferatu’: the notorious consultancy advising Edinburgh uni amid 'huge' cuts

Scotland’s largest university has turned to Nous Group at the same time as it is making savings that could lead to nearly 2,000 job losses. Staff say they were misled about the extent of its work.

theferret.scot

Behind the bewildering transformation of British universities, are management consultants being paid millions Really proud to have this vital piece on our unis are being gutted from the inside by @jheathershaw.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale. Do read democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...

Inside Britain's university crisis

As teaching staff face job loss, their bosses have netted pay rises and bought advice from a “vampiric” management consultancy, writes Prof. John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter

democracyforsale.substack.com

It's genuinely embarrassing to be an educator, and see all the people claiming to be education leaders in the sector coming up, as if by magic, with the same bullshit formulae for unnecessary change, all of which is designed to get them a better-paying job, that definitely doesn't involve teaching.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last wk.

'Strip away the grandiose language and a pattern emerges – some combination of fewer, larger modules, almost always wedges of 30 credits, an all-core or heavily prescribed first year, reduced optionality in later years, curated pathways instead of individual module choice... [cont.] 1/4

Elspeth Van Veeren@evanveeren.bsky.social · 3w ago

Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

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

There's definitely a version of consultation that university management have that has more in common with a forwarded email titled FYI than actual consultation

Durham UCU@ducu.bsky.social · 3w ago

Like, we've been complaining for quite a while that we feel like senior management have a tendency to just tell us what they plan to do and call it "consultation", but at least that way we get some advance notice of what's coming. Waking up to this news wholly unprepared feels absolutely awful.

Its been an emerging topic on UCU BS this week but the removal of the course cap is killing "lower tariff" institutions, whilst "higher tariff" places are overloading staff and undermining the educational experience.

Chris Havergal@chrishavergal.bsky.social · 4w ago

UK universities set for another “highly competitive” clearing round in August as higher-tariff institutions look to scoop up domestic students in face of international student downturn www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers... via @georgialouluck.bsky.social

oh hey, remember that article about Cardiff not knowing how much it spends on consultancies? Yeah, that's kinda regular in unis up and down the country: every Department's budget micromanaged to draw out 50-60% cash generation, and central has no clear overview of their spent. Let's reform that...

Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · last mo.

A “complete breakdown in cash management” and a “lack of expenditure control” at the top of the University of Dundee contributed to its perilous financial state, according to long-awaited accounts finally released today. Georgia Louise Luckhurst reports #jobcuts #edusky https://ow.ly/mc0V50ZjhYM

This is still happening, huh?

Mark Rubin@markrubin.bsky.social · last mo.

Redundancy Review Committee finds university may have deliberately targeted the vice-president of the union. University ignores Committee and proceeds with redundancy. #UKHE #AcademicSky

You ever feel like you're having a pretty good morning and then you realize it's because you forgot to check your work email

Each uni has a consultancy in that tells them how to run a degree cheaply. They all simply say 'mega lectures' (LOL, infrastructure) & 'generic modules staff is interchangeable on'. It's pitched as rationalising, creating a 'sustainable' portfolio. But its destroying what university actually is.

Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social · last mo.

I don’t know the details but they may well targeting modules with lower registration, where a world expert gets to teach their research to a relatively small number of the keenest students. You know. Those modules that stick in the students’ minds for the rest of their lives.

Just heard about the 200 redundancies announced by my previous employer, the University of Exeter. 170 of those are in Humanities and Social Sciences. This is what happens in a country with the collapsing HE funding system with VCs-cum-CEOs on £300k salaries+bonuses and corporate governing bodies.

Please tell at least one person about our public meeting to save jobs at the University of Dundee. We need to reach as many people affected by the closures to courses and services. Today, 6pm, Dundee Central Library.

Northumbria UCU Branch@ucunorthumbria.bsky.social · 2mo ago

First management @northumbriauni.bsky.social came for our pensions and pay - for no good reason. Now they're coming for our colleagues. This is terrible news for staff, students, and the region. @timeshighered.bsky.social @chroniclelive.co.uk @ukhenews.bsky.social @21group.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Further grim news from the ongoing "changes" at Dundee.

GUCU members: do not cross the picket line for the degree shows today. Join our Art and Visual Cutlures members and students at 5PM for an alternative to the private view instead! The workers who supported these students through their degrees deserve better than business as usual.

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...

1000 jobs. 1000 jobs will be lost. Proposals for over 200 redundancies to bring job losses at the University of Dundee to 1000. Decision being made today with SFC. If approved the University will forge ahead. @ucu.org.uk @ucuscotland.bsky.social @chondrogianni.bsky.social @jogrady.bsky.social

Your voice matters! 🔊🗣 Make time for our upcoming AGM (17 June). Help shape our branch. Hear updates, discuss issues & vote on decisions that affect us all. The AGM is hybrid & takes place in Theatre 2 Crawford House at 12.30 toll 2pm. Email ucu@manchester.ac.uk for the Teams link. See you then! 👊🏽

The sense of injustice to see the person who lied to you in a consultation meeting sending out "all staff" emails lauding the latest non-Leicester project that sucks money away from the business of educating people in Leicester is one felt by a lot of our colleagues.

Add to this, our colleagues (academics not currently at risk of redundancy, but none of us are under any illusions) saw in the last process that highly paid middle managers could jump into newly created bureaucratic roles, but expert academics could either jump, with a payoff, or be pushed.

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 2mo ago

NEW from me: today I've written another piece in our @isrfoundation.bsky.social series on the destruction of British Higher Education. What's it like to live under the threat of redundancy? Read all about it here: isrf.org/blog/what-do...

It can be an aggravating exercise to take a look at university "managers" CVs and see what their scholarship is like. We recently did that with a prominent "leader" at our place and found very little to suggest much in the way of academic "talent".

The only objective is to cut. Not management, that "talent" is too important to lose. The people doing the teaching and research that used to be the purpose of the university, though? Readily disposable.

In our redundancy consultations last year colleagues told the middle manager across from them that they had achieved all sorts of great things in league tables that feature on massive adverts across campus. "yes we are aware of your ranking" was the only reply.

Chris Lloyd@cilloyd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My humanities degrees are being scrapped - cos “money??” - but Lit, Linguistics and creative writing have just climbed THIRTY places in the good university guide league table. Couldn’t make this shit up @uhertfordshireucu.bsky.social

If you're not in the union, they can do this to you. If you are in the union, but you are not striking, I guess my question given this behavior is: why not? It's decision time, surely.

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

'Now, emails and university communications seen by The Herald show that staff will have their pay withheld if they refuse to "cover a range of duties, including marking and assessment, supervision", or other work left by their boycotting colleagues.' 2/3

Do other people's work or you too are in breach of contract. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out legally...

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

'The university has adopted the position that boycotting staff are in "breach of contract", will receive no pay, and are therefore not expected to work at all, leading to what some have described as a "lockout".' 1/3

There's nothing quite like that feeling of both being at risk of redundancy and asked to sell your programme/university to a group of young people and their families: sure kid, sign up, but who knows who'll actually be teaching you or what you might learn, or if the degree will even run!

QM_UCU@qmucu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Any parent and applicant planning to attend the Sussex University Open Day today, we can save you the trouble: these are the non-answers staff is told to give you. To send your staff out with this nonsense and treat visitors to this ChatGPT approach is disrespectful to all.

Any parent and applicant planning to attend the Sussex University Open Day today, we can save you the trouble: these are the non-answers staff is told to give you. To send your staff out with this nonsense and treat visitors to this ChatGPT approach is disrespectful to all.

These past few weeks the fight for our uni has taken a new turn. We've lost ~700 staff already. Will it be 1000 in the end, with the management's "Strategy to Recovery"? Unis as a business vs as a place of research & education - coming to a head in Dundee and across the UK. More ⬇️

Dundee UCU@ducuuo.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Today members of the Dundee UCU branch protested against their voices not being heard. “We are disappointed to learn that a paper that Dundee UCU was invited to submit to Court for inclusion in the Court’s workshop on University’s recovery was rejected without appeal.” 1/4