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UCU is the largest trade union and professional association for academics, researchers, and academic-related staff in the UK.
Its mission is to defend the interests of its members, with the protection and improvement of working conditions and pay as its highest priority.
Why be a member of UCU?
NEWS
23 October 2009. UCEA agrees to talks as HE unions press for job security. UCEA,
the national employers’ body that represents university managements,
has this week agreed to meet the unions for talks involving ACAS. This
follows a joint letter from all the HE unions calling for the employers
to return to the table to discuss defending job security and quality in
higher education. UCEA’s letter of response states that they are
unwilling to talk about pay but with the five unions united in pressing
hard for a jointly agreed national approach to job security, the
employers have agreed to talks which are likely to take place on 4
November. All five HE unions are committed to working together and with
NUS to develop a campaign on job security, linking workload issues,
student staff rations and the defence of quality in higher education.
You can read the unions’ letter and the employers’ response here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/hepay
21 October 2009. Research excellence to be assessed on basis of economic and social impact. Concerns about the Research Excellence Framework that will replace the RAE as the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK HEIs have been heightened by the revelation that 25% of the assessment score will be based on the economic and social impact of the research. Although the proposed new Framework is currently a consultation document, it has been revealed that only 3 of 14 members of the Steering Group that will review the consultation process are from the HE sector, the remainder being from private companies and government departments. Today Sally Hunt wrote a letter [see here] to the Chief Executive of HEFCE to express concern about the unbalanced membership of this steering group.
UCU believes that it is counterproductive to make funding for the best research conditional on its perceived economic and social benefits, and that the REF proposals are founded on a lack of understanding of how knowledge advances. It is often difficult to predict which research will create the greatest practical impact. History shows us that in many instances it is curiosity-driven research that has led to major scientific and cultural advances. If implemented, these proposals risk undermining support for basic research across all disciplines and may well lead to an academic brain drain to countries such as the United States that continue to value fundamental research.
Universities must continue to be spaces in which the spirit of adventure thrives and where researchers enjoy academic freedom to push back the boundaries of knowledge in their disciplines. UCU is therefore calling on the UK funding councils to withdraw the current REF proposals and to work with academics and researchers on creating a funding regime which supports and fosters basic research in our universities and colleges rather than discourages it. A "Stand up for Research" petition has been set up by UCU that has already been signed by over 2000 UK academics, including 6 Nobel prize winners. All academic and research staff are strongly urged to sign the petition at http://www.ucu.org.uk/standupforresearch, and to encourage colleagues who are not members of UCU to do so too.
1 September 2009. Urgent message from UCU general secretary regarding London Metropolitan University (LMU) Toward the end of last year, LMU was hit by a £15 million reduction in recurring grant and repayment demands totalling more than £36 million by HEFCE following submissions of incorrect student completion records. The university responded by stating that they intended to cut 550 posts. Despite UCU's best efforts to persuade the university to enter into formal negotiations to reach a resolution, and a vigorous, nationally and regionally supported branch campaign, including industrial action, the university is forging ahead with the planned compulsory redundancies – the first 50 FTEs of which are imminent. The situation at London Metropolitan University is unprecedented. The vice-chancellor, Brian Roper resigned in March and a special report into HEFCE’s role in the crisis at LMU was published last month (available here). After months of public pressure from the academic community, UCU and our sister unions, Deloitte Touche have been commissioned to undertake an independent inquiry into the situation at London Met and UCU will be contributing to this inquiry.
In spite of UCU's calls for a suspension of LMU's redundancy proposals until after the independent reports have been made public, the management appears dogmatically committed to press on with its plans. We cannot stand back and allow this university to be destroyed. We cannot stand by and allow hundreds of staff and students pay the price for a catastrophic failure of management and governance. As a national union, we must be able to say that it is unacceptable for staff to pay for mismanagement with their jobs and students to suffer huge detriment to their education and we must establish the principle that universities must be accountable for their actions. Therefore, as of today, 1 September, UCU will be asking colleagues across the country, other trade unions, labour movement organisations and the international academic community to support our members at the university in any way possible, including:
* non-attendance, speaking at or organising academic or other conferences at LMU
* not applying for any advertised jobs at LMU
* not giving lectures at LMU
* not accepting positions as visiting professors or researchers at LMU
* not writing for any academic journal which is edited at or produced by LMU
* not taking up new contracts as external examiners for taught courses
If you are able to support in this way, please email: jstephens@ucu.org.uk
20 August 2009. Trade unions holding back sector, says leaked report. The THES today revealed the contents of a leaked confidential document from a June workshop for University human resources directors on "Doing More with Less". According to the THES article, the report states that the sector's current employment model is "looking increasingly inappropriate". "Senior HR people believe that the time has come to challenge how the trade unions influence the 'business' of higher education, and realise that the traditional approach is holding back individual institutions and the sector in its totality," it says. "Workload models no longer fit new styles of service delivery, are ineffective and too inflexible."
The document entitled "A Challenging Time for Universities", also states that statutes, ordinances and other governance requirements leave the sector lacking agility in decision-making, and describes the culture of higher education as "fearful and conservative". It recommends that staff ratios should be benchmarked with other kinds of organisation, and concludes that workforce modernisation, better employee engagement, simplification of systems and "talent management" will increase productivity during the lean years. It notes that many universities have already frozen recruitment and introduced voluntary redundancy schemes: "And this is just the start - the real squeeze is yet to come." Perhaps even more alarmingly [if that were possible] it states that "There is increasing debate about pension scheme deficits and the extremely high cost of maintaining final salary schemes".
The THES article also points out that although University staff have been offered a derisory 0.5% payrise, some vice-chancellors are understood to have argued for higher salaries for themselves so as to offset the larger tax deductions they will have to pay next year under a new tax regime for high earners. Read the full story here.
10 August 2009. Newcastle University management proposes a major revision of the Statutes. In a disturbing development that has taken UCU by surprise, Newcastle University has announced its intention to request a major revision of the Statutes. For those who are not familiar with the Statutes, they constitute a set of regulations that govern the way in which the University is run, and in particular the procedures for the appointment and dismissal of academic staff. Part of their importance is that they can only be altered with the approval of the Privy Council. Since the establishment of Newcastle University they have only been changed on a very small number of occasions. Most alarmingly, the University is now proposing to remove all of the provisions, set out in Statute 57, that require the University to follow a series of complex procedures in order to make a member of academic staff redundant [for details click here], and instead to endow the Vice Chancellor [or "other designated person or persons"] with sweeping powers to suspend from duty, with or without pay, or to dismiss or make redundant any member of staff. Such proposals would raise concerns at any time, but in the current climate where many Universities are considering compulsory redundancy, they are extremely alarming and are strongly opposed by UCU.
5 August 2009. INTO ventures post record losses. Some three years ago the University entered into a controversial partnership in which the private company INTO took over the running of the University's English language courses for pre-entry international students. The latest figures available show that the partnership with Newcastle University made a loss in 2007/8 of almost £1 million, and that INTO partnerships with three other Universities made losses of a similar magnitude. UCU has also discovered that Andrew Colin, the sole shareholder of INTO University Partnerships had, up to 31 July 2008, lent the company £5.5m in the form of interest free loans. For further details click here
1 August 2009. Universities failing on standards. In a report published today, covered by the BBC on its national news, the Commons Universities Select Committee has concluded that the current system for ensuring quality amongst degrees awarded by UK Universities is "out of date", and that "Inconsistency in standards is rife". It describes as "absurd and disreputable" the claim that the growing demand for courses, including from overseas students, is proof that university standards are being maintained, and calls for urgent action to improve how universities safeguard the quality of degrees. The cross-party committee attacks university leaders for failing to "give a straightforward answer to the simple question of whether first class honours degrees achieved at different universities indicate the same or different intellectual standards". And the MPs question why universities have failed to explain the rapid increase in the number of top grade degrees being awarded. To protect the "integrity" of degrees, the committee calls for a radical overhaul of the current watchdog, the Quality Assurance Agency, replacing it with an independent body charged with maintaining academic standards. The report casts doubt on the reliability of self-regulation by universities and calls for tighter rules for external examiners and a way of comparing standards in different institutions. Read the full story here.
24 July 2009. Major cuts in University funding announced. UCU has strongly criticised the decision by HEFCE to reduce funding for university teaching by £65 million. The union said that the new efficiency savings would do irreparable damage to quality and provision in the country. The £65 million cut is the first part of government plans to make a £180 million pounds worth of "efficiency savings" from higher education by 2010-2011. UCU today warned that the £65m will equate to the loss of a further 1,500 full time lecturing and support staff just days after the union revealed university staffing cuts affecting 100,000 students.
17 July 2009. HE unions condemn 'appalling' final offer on pay and jobs. The five higher education unions issued a joint statement this week condemning the employers' final offer on pay and job security as 'appalling'. At a meeting of 'new JNCHES' on Wednesday 15 July, UCEA, made a final offer of a 0.5% pay rise, which the unions noted was significantly below the 1.5% offered to the FE unions. UCEA also persisted in claiming they have 'no mandate' to negotiate on a national agreement on job security, in spite of the jobs crisis consuming higher education.
13 July 2009. End of retirement age signalled. The BBC reported today that a government review of the default retirement age, which allows employers to compel staff to retire at 65, is to be brought forward by a year. BBC home editor Mark Easton said ministers had effectively signalled an end to the default retirement age. Ministers said they had brought the review forward to respond to changing demographic and economic circumstances. Separately, the Court of Appeal will hear a legal challenge to the default retirement age this week in a case backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. A solicitor, Leslie Seldon, believes he was discriminated against on the grounds of age when he was not permitted to work beyond the age of 65. A number of other age discrimination cases are awaiting the outcome of this and another challenge being brought against the government by the charities Help the Aged and Age Concern following an earlier ruling by the European Court of Justice that the UK Courts must consider carefully whether enforced retirement amounts to discrimination. Regardless of how the courts interpret current legislation, all of the major political parties seem to be coming to the view that making it illegal to discriminate against someone because of their age, except if they are over 65, is absurd, and that "Ageism needs to be stopped, full stop". To read the full BBC article, click here.
10 July 2009. Cuts crisis worsens in London and Reading. The jobs crisis in London's higher education sector has worsened this week with the news that King's College London is looking to cut 10% off its staff budget and UCL confirmed that it wants cuts of 6%. According to union calculations, these cuts alone could translate into more than 800 jobs, joining the announcement last week that Imperial College was looking to slash 130 jobs from its Faculty of Medicine and the news that London Met is still intent on cutting around 160 jobs this year. UCU is working with the branches involved on coordinating the union's response to this wave of cuts. Reading University has also joined the ranks of job slashing universities with the announcement that it would be looking to slash 10% off its staff budget. The university became the centre of public attention recently when it axed a Health and Social Care department in the midst of a national crisis concerning a shortage of social workers, only a couple of years after cutting a strategically important Physics department.
Furious UCU members at London Metropolitan have called a second day of strike action, to be held jointly with UNISON, on 14 July. The further escalation of the dispute is a consequence of London Met's management's persistent failure to consult in a meaningful manner and its insistence on pressing on with compulsory redundancies in spite of revelations about mismanagement and poor leadership. If you haven't already signed the petition to save London Met, please do so. Petition.
16 June 2009. Congress report. Last week the Newcastle UCU delegates attended the annual National UCU Congress. Not surprisingly, the main focus of interest was the developing crisis in Higher Education, and the derisory pay offer that we have received. However, many other topics were also discussed. For more details click here.
4 June 2009. Denham blames poor teaching for increase in university dropouts. Secretary of State for Universities John Denham caused outrage this week when he blamed poor teaching for the increased number of university dropouts. In a letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Denham said: "No doubt there will be a number of factors to explain why certain institutions have particularly low retention rates. However, it seems likely that the quality of teaching and the student experience will be important components." UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt said: "I am outraged and astonished that the minister is trying to suggest that the reason for an increase in dropouts is down to poor teaching. His comments are another kick in the teeth for lecturers whose reward for all their extra hard work has been an insulting pay offer of just 0.4% and the news that, as students numbers increase again this year, 100 universities are planning to axe jobs. If John Denham is looking for reasons why students are dropping out, it may be worth him considering the record levels of debt that the government is saddling them with."
15 May 2009. Plans to axe Liverpool University departments are shelved. Plans to axe the philosophy, politics and communications and statistics departments at Liverpool University have been dropped after protests from lecturers and students in the city. Following noisy protests at meetings to close the Departments and a lengthy campaign by staff and students, the university has recommended that the Departments should be given the opportunity to implement recovery plans in an effort to improve research performance. The three departments were originally signalled out for closure following the publication of the Research Assessment Exercise, which rates the quality of research in university departments.
Sally Hunt, said: 'No university can build and maintain an international reputation for excellence if it panics and starts axing departments every time it spots a short-term problem. The staff and students at Liverpool have run a brilliant campaign and we are delighted that the university has actually listened to what the academic community had to say. Sadly, these cuts, and the thinking behind them, are symptomatic of a wider malaise across higher education.'
7 May 2009. Thousands of jobs to go at universities as budgets slashed by £150m. This was the headline of an article that appeared in the Times newspaper this morning. The article went on to state: "John Denham, the Skills Secretary, will warn university and further education chiefs in a letter today that they will have to find savings of £300 million — the lion’s share of a £400 million cut across his department next year. The cutback is a result of Alistair Darling’s decision to reduce public spending next year by £5 billion. Mr Denham will also make clear that inflation at minus 0.4 per cent should be taken into account in pay settlements, given the relatively generous 2.5 per cent rise in funding this year. He also said "I will be writing to both HEFCE and the Learning Skills Council, asking them to ensure we get the best return for taxpayers’ money, by cutting back on bureaucracy, inefficiencies and administrative overheads, and by concentrating spending on teaching and learning.” One VC of a leading institution described the cuts last night as “nonsensical”, adding that he was having to cut 250 staff before the cuts kick in next financial year. He knew of another top university planning to cut 300 jobs."
The cuts contrast with Tuesday's commitment to education from the Prime Minister who, in a speech on 'education for the new global age', said: 'The downturn is no time to slow down our investment in education but rather to build more vigorously for the future. Under this government, education will not become a victim of the recession, but rather the focus of our path to recovery and long-term growth.'
5 May 2009. Ballot for industrial action begins. In the absence of any retraction by the Employers of their threats of widescale job cuts in the HE sector or of any improvement in their derisory pay offer, ballot papers were sent out to all members at the end of last week and should be arriving in University mail boxes in the next few days. Sally Hunt today sent out a message to members urging them to support the Union leadership in the ballot by voting Yes to industrial action to defend jobs, Yes to defend pay, and Yes to defend education. To read the full text of Sally's message, click here. To read a summary of the issues underlying the dispute, and a rebuttal of the propaganda being issued by the employers, click here.
28 April 2009. UCU rejects 'derisory' pay offer of just 0.3%. At the new JNCHES negotiation meeting yesterday, the Employer's Association UCEA made a pay offer of 0.3% for 2009/10, and at the same time provided no credible response to UCU's call for a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancies. The employers' inadequate response was rejected by UCU and the other "campus" trade unions. In response to this united front and to UCU's decision to ballot members for industrial action, UCEA have now tentatively agreed to further urgent talks at national level. In view of the lack of a satisfactory response from UCEA, a ballot for industrial action will begin next week. In a statement sent out to all members, Sally Hunt made clear that "It is vital that we win the forthcoming ballot in order to keep up the pressure."
22 April 2009. UCU in dispute with employers. In view of the continuation of UCEA's threat of massive redundancies in the HE sector, their refusal to enter into a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancies, and their failure to provide any pay offer, UCU declared today that it was in dispute with the employers until they make a credible proposal which is acceptable to UCU and its
members. Failing acceptable progress a ballot for industrial action will begin on 1 May 2009.
16 April 2009. National Negotiations Latest. Today Sally Hunt issued the following message.
"UCU and its fellow trade unions met UCEA on 30 March to receive what we thought would be an initial pay offer. However at this meeting the employers informed the unions that:
· it was not possible to make a pay offer
· up to 100 HE institutions were making plans for collective redundancies
· salary increases would need to be 'traded off' against job protection.
UCEA has indicated that up to 100 institutions, around two-thirds of participating institutions, are looking to lose people. They were keen to state that they wanted trade union negotiators to keep job security in mind. Our own research indicates that the scale of job cuts is substantial. Every UCU member, whatever type of institution they work in, is potentially vulnerable as current proposals for cuts at institutions as varied as the universities of Liverpool, Reading, Hertfordshire, and London Metropolitan show. In this situation of great uncertainty for staff across the UK, national negotiations are required to protect jobs. UCU has therefore asked UCEA to sit down with the unions now to reach a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancies by its member institutions. Given the urgency of the situation we are seeking this commitment and a response to other matters relating to salaries and equality issues by 20 April. Failing this, I am mandated to consider balloting members for industrial action to secure an effective job protection agreement from the national employers. I know that many of you share my view that cooperation between employers and the unions will be essential during the current economic difficulties. We must build a shared agenda to ensure staff rewards continue to be competitive and that jobs are protected. Now is the time for the employers to show they are serious about partnership by joining us to protect jobs."
10 April 2009. Newcastle Executives decide to freeze their pay. Newcastle University announced that the University's senior management team has decided to forego a pay rise this year in the light of the global economic situation. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, and ten other members of the Executive Board, took the decision ahead of next month's meeting of the Remuneration Committee, which normally determines an appropriate pay package. Professor Brink said: "The University is mindful of the effects that the recession is having on the lives of many people and it would seem prudent to show restraint in a sector which receives substantial public funding. So far, the University's financial position has not been seriously affected by the recession but the Executive felt that they should be sensitive to public feeling and exercise restraint during the current difficulties." Following the huge payrises that senior University managers have received in recent years [see for example the News item for 26 March], often greatly exceeding those that they have begrudgingly awarded to other University staff, many will feel that such restraint was long overdue and should become the norm even when the recession is over.
2 April 2009. UCEA refuses to make pay offer. UCU was shocked to hear at the pay talks last week that UCEA has decided not to make a pay offer to the higher education unions. With job losses being threatened across higher education, it appears that University bosses have been focusing on dumping, rather than rewarding, staff, despite their own recent exorbitant salary increases. Sally Hunt said: "The employers need to get their act together, and fast. We will now be seeking further discussions on pay, jobs and equality issues. The employers should bring a serious offer to the table as a matter of urgency".
26 March 2009. Academic and VC payrises compared. A recent survey of academic salaries has revealed that the average salary of an academic rose by 5.7% in the year 2007/8. In the same period the salaries of Vice Chancellors rose by 9%, up from the 8% increase enjoyed the previous year. The pension contributions of VCs rose even more, by a staggering 16% compared with the previous year. The average VC pay is now more than £190,000, and 71 VCs are paid more than the prime minister! UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "As some universities call for higher university fees and staff are being warned that any pay increases may lead to redundancies, it is quite incredible and rather distasteful that vice-chancellors again enjoyed such exorbitant pay rises. These staff pay rises date from the middle of a three-year pay deal that we were told was at the brink of affordability. That vice-chancellors were pocketing close to twice the pay rise they begrudged staff at the time is extraordinary."
24 March 2009. Threats of redundancy spread through the sector. Within weeks of the announcement by the Obama administration of its economic stimulus package, in which a major component comprises a massive investment in higher education and research, there are growing indications that the response of the British Government and Vice Chancellors to the economic crisis is to cut academic courses and jobs. In the wake of London Metropolitan University's intention to axe 500 jobs to pay for managerial incompetence, eight Departments and their staff at Liverpool University have been put at risk as part of a "restructuring plan", and this week cuts have been announced at Reading, Strathclyde, Sussex, and Warwick. Sally Hunt commented, "I believe that making teachers, lecturers and those who support learning redundant.... during a recession is nothing more than an act of academic vandalism".
16 March 2009. Dispute with UCEA resolved. UCU's Higher Education Committee agreed today to proposals from the employers which resolve the current dispute. UCU said that it was looking to take forward a new agenda for negotiations around pay and conditions for university staff. The four issues that had threatened to destabilise the sector were employer threats of a pay freeze and the undermining of national bargaining, UCU's ability to take industrial action at a time of its choosing and the lack of opportunity for unions to discuss issues relevant to distinct occupations across higher education. Following extensive talks UCEA has now ruled out a pay freeze for the forthcoming pay round and has reaffirmed its commitment to national bargaining. Crucially a review of the negotiating timetable has been agreed and it is accepted that the timetable does not restrict the ability for UCU to take industrial action. An agreement has also been made that issues relating to distinct occupations can be discussed with the relevant unions.
25 February 2009. Workload Planning. A serious situation is developing at Newcastle University following a recent unexpected thrust by Management to deploy a detailed metrication system of workload planning, in which every task performed by academic staff will be given a points score based on the time that Management believe the task should take. Staff are expected to achieve a "norm" of 1800 points, based on the Management calculation that staff work 1800 hours per year [45 weeks at 40 hours per week]. A typical scheme is the Workload Planning Model for the Faculty of Medical Sciences, which has provoked widespread outrage amongst academic staff there. Similar schemes, but with bizarre and inexplicable differences in the details of the metrication, have been proposed by other Faculties, Schools, and Institutes across the University. Some while ago, Newcastle UCU agreed with Management a general Workload Planning Policy which made no mention of metrication, and instead affirmed the principles that staff should not be given excessive workloads, put under unreasonable pressure, expected to work excessive hours, etc, etc.
Newcastle UCU is extremely concerned about these developments for the following reasons;
1. They represent a fundamental change in the employment conditions of academic staff, and as such should not be implemented without full consultation and negotiation with Newcastle UCU
2. They take no account of the fact that most academic staff work way beyond the normal contracted hours, and in essence these metrication plans represent an attempt by Management to formalize the excessive workloads [currently undertaken on a voluntary basis] by coercing staff to agree that the tasks they currently perform can be accommodated into a normal 40 hour week [which for grade F staff should be a 37 hour week]
3. The metrication schemes themselves are absurd, taking no account of class sizes, marking, preparation time, the fact that papers published in different journals involve vastly different amounts of work, etc, etc. Interestingly being Head of Department can merit a massive 1200 points! By contrast, if you have a large grant you get only 400 points, and you would need to publish 28 first or last author papers per year [at 50 points each] to bring your total to 1800 per year!
4. They represent a major attack on the professionalism and dedication of academic staff, and on academic freedom.
5. If any form of metrication were to be used to evaluate academic workloads it should be based on the UCU Workload Protection Guidelines. Please note that this is currently a draft document, and has not yet been officially agreed as UCU policy.
23 January 2009. 22% increase for UCEA chief who called for staff 'pay restraint'. Chair of UCEA Professor Bill Wakeham has seen his own pay increase by 22% to
£240,000 in the two financial years since 2006 according to new UCU research. Professor Wakeham receives his salary as VC of Southampton University. He described UCU's 2009 pay claim as wholly "unrealistic" in a recent article for THE magazine! Sally Hunt's recent article in the THES on the pay negotiations.
17 January 2009. Likely end to compulsory retirement. In spite of EU Directives and UK legislation against age discrimination in the workplace, employers can still force employees to retire at 65, in essence imposing compulsory redundancy with no right to redundancy payments. This is currently the subject of several legal challenges, including one brought by Age Concern to the European Court of Justice, where a formal judgement is expected in March [see News story 25 September 2008]. However, this case has now been pre-empted by a surprise announcement by the Business Department Minister Lord Carter that the Government's intention is to scrap compulsory retirement. It now seems likely that the Government review of the current retirement age of 65, due to report in 2011, will consider eliminating a fixed retirement age entirely and retaining a voluntary retirement age of 65 rather than opting to increase the compulsory retirement age to 68 as previously expected. It seems that apart from the issues of discrimination and redundancy, the Government has finally woken up to the fact that forcing people into retirement at 65 not only places increasing strains on the pension system as people live for longer, but is a huge waste of experience, skills, and knowledge to the economy. Since 2006 employees have had the right to request that they be allowed to continue to work beyond 65, but most employers, including Newcastle University, have been reluctant to accede to such requests. Even where employees are allowed to continue working beyond 65, the employer's pension contributions do not continue beyond 40 years of service [this milestone may of course be reached well before the age of 65], a matter which perhaps also needs to be challenged in the courts. For further detail on the Government's U-turn on retirement age, click here.
16 January 2009. HEFCE cash clawback threatens major redundancies at London Met. A quite unbelievable and shocking situation has developed at London Metropolitan University. As a result of previous gross mis-management by both themselves and HEFCE, the Management at London Met is threatening to make 330 FTE compulsory redundancies in addition to a voluntary redundancy scheme with very bad conditions. This is in response to HEFCE reducing annual funding by £18 million from 08/09 and threatening to take back £38 million overpayment based on overestimates of student numbers. In addition Amanda Sackur, NEC member and activist at London Met, is being disciplined for visiting Nottingham Trent. All members are urged to support their colleagues at London Met by signing the on-line petition. To read more details about the extraordinary cash problems at London Met, click here.
9 January 2009. UCEA finally agree to ACAS. UCEA this week agreed to UCU's offer of ACAS talks to resolve the outstanding issues between the two sides that have existed since February 2008. Faced with the previous refusal of UCEA to talk to UCU, the union's Higher Education Committee met in December and mandated the General Secretary to ballot members in HE for industrial action if satisfactory progress could not be made by the end of January 2009. The issues that will be addressed in the new talks are:
* UCU's right to negotiate on issues specific to the academic team
* whether employers will be allowed to opt in or out of future pay rises just as they please;
* UCU's right to take industrial action as a last resort should the need arise
* Serious discussion about pay and an end to provocative comments about 'zero pay rises' and 'pay freezes' in the sector.
Sally Hunt also today wrote to every member in HE outlining the union's position and promising to do everything possible to win a settlement that creates stability in the sector. She warned that this dispute is of the utmost importance to HE members. The dispute with UCEA is not just about pay but also about union's ability to represent its members effectively and deliver better salaries and conditions as we did in 2006. For this reason, she asks that HE members be ready to support the union should it become necessary. You can read Sally's letter to all members, as well as her letters to UCEA and to Vice Chancellors and more on this dispute by clicking here:
18 December 2008. Results of the RAE 2008 published. The results of the latest Research Assessment Exercise have been published. Thanks to the immense efforts of Newcastle University's Academics and Research Staff, Newcastle has maintained its position as one of the unquestionably most important research centres in the UK. Although we didn't of course come top of the list, according the analysis published in Research Fortnight we were 17th out of 162 Institutions. Cancer Studies, Clinical Medicine, Civil Engineering, Town & Country Planning, and Arts & Design were rated particularly highly. The VC issued a letter containing a summary of the results to all staff. Despite the tremendous success of the University, the tone of the letter was quite cool, and ended rather ominously by stating that over the next year the University will be engaged in a strategic review in which the results of the RAE will form a part of the process. NUCU will be watching this matter very carefully. The full text of the VC's letter.
10 December 2008. Universities claim they face a deficit. The BBC News website also carried an article today by the BBC's News Education Reporter Hannah Richardson on the report by commissioned by JNCHES following the pay dispute in 2006. Not surprisingly, in the run up to the next pay round, JNCHES are claiming that they are fast running out of cash as a result of the 15.9% 3-year paydeal and cutbacks in Government funding for higher education as a result of the financial crisis. The problem is that most Universities were in fact able to fund the 15.9% payrise quite comfortably [earlier in the year Newcastle University reported that its finances were in very good shape], and the Government has made no announcement of any cutbacks in higher education. For the full story, click here. For a similar rather longer article about the "University Crisis" published in the Guardian on 12th December, click here.
10 December 2008. Academics to act as immigration officers. As reported in an article on the BBC News website today, a petition was handed in to Downing Street by academics and students urging the Government to rethink new rules that will come into effect in March 2009 requiring Universities and academics to monitor whether overseas students are attending classes, and report failure to attend to the Authorities. Not only do many academics view this as an onerous and distasteful task, but there are significant questions as to whether these new regulations represent an infringement of basic human rights and a further move towards a total surveillance state. For the full story, click here.
8 December 2008. Letter from Sally Hunt on the deadlock between UCU and UCEA. Sally Hunt today sent out a letter to all UCU members providing an update on the serious issues that have emerged relating to the 2009 pay negotiations. Firstly, UCU has now requested a meeting with UCEA to provide reassurance to staff that they will not be faced with the nil percent increases suggested by Phil Harding, chair of the British Universities Finance Directors Group, in an interview with the THES in September [see News event for 10 November]. Secondly, UCU has requested that UCEA withdraw its proposal to allow every HE institution to 'opt in' or 'out out' of nationally agreed pay rises every year, which would make a mockery of national negotiations, and would lead to local bargaining with no protection for staff. Thirdly, UCU proposes immediate negotiations with UCEA to reach agreement on the conditions under which UCU will participate in pay negotiations, in particular that there should be a separate bilateral forum for UCU and UCEA to discuss the distinct interests of academic and related staff, and that negotiating timetable should be brought forward so that pay negotiations are completed well before the summer. Given the current impasse, UCU is proposing that both sides agree to ask a respected third party such as ACAS to facilitate urgent talks.
In the meantime, UCU is urging all members to write to the VC expressing their concern about the confrontational attitude of UCEA to pay negotiations, and in particular the proposed annual opt out from national pay bargaining, and requesting that the VC use his influence to get UCEA back to the negotiating table.
According to Newcastle University's pay negotiations website, "The University Council, at its meeting on 20 October, endorsed a recommendation by Executive Board that the University should participate in national pay negotiations for 2009/10". While this is of some relief, it provides no assurance that Newcastle University is committed in the long-term to national pay bargaining, and on the contrary implies that it is going along with UCEAs "opt-in opt-out" policy, and will decide on a year by year basis whether to implement pay deals reached at national level.
8 December 2008. Resolution of Nottingham Trent dispute. Following the decision by NTU in October to terminate recognition of UCU, the nationwide outcry and wave of support by UCU members for colleagues at NTU, coupled with the strike action taken by staff at NTU, has resulted in a new recognition agreement between UCU and the management at NTU which appears to be acceptable to both sides. Consequently, the calls for the greylisting of the university have been suspended with immediate effect.
5 December 2008. Universities who 'opt out' of national pay rises will face industrial action, warns UCU. UCEA has told universities they have until the end of March to opt out of national bargaining. In response, UCU's Higher Education Committee (HEC) today approved plans for the union to write to every university vice-chancellor and principal warning that if any institution does decide to 'opt out' of national bargaining it would face local industrial action and greylisting. UCU is pressing for urgent talks on the UCEA opt out, the exclusion of UCU from current bargaining structures, and the threats of a 'zero pay increase' from some institutions. UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'We view UCEA's macho strategy of refusing to talk to UCU, the largest highest education union, while at the same time encouraging universities to believe they can opt in and out of national pay deals, as a tactical disaster for our sector".
10 November 2008. Payclaim decided. Delegates at the UCU HE sector pay conference last week debated a host of motions relating to the pay claim and voted to press ahead with demands for a rise equivalent to the Retail Price Index (RPI) + 5% or an 8% increase, whichever is higher. Sally Hunt, said: 'Nobody can refute that staff in higher education work extremely hard or that they deserve to be properly rewarded. For too long university employers held down staff pay rises. 'Recent increases have gone someway to righting that wrong, but there is still a long way to go. UCU members are determined to defend the value of the pay rises they have won". Recent inflammatory remarks from some universities have suggested that their hard-working staff would be lucky to get a 0% pay rise next year. These remarks were apparently prompted by comments made by Phil Harding, chair of the British Universities Finance Directors Group, in an interview with the THES in September. He said that "The one message that is very clear from [University] financial directors is that any case for a 'catch-up' settlement has gone and payment [of the present 5% pay installment] in full and on time means that we start with an expectation of nil uplift for next year."
24 October 2008. Professorial staff begrudgingly awarded pay rise. The University's Professors today received letters in their mail boxes from the Director of Human Resources informing them that despite the fact that the professorial payscale is not covered by national pay bargaining the University has nonetheless decided that its professorial staff will in fact receive the 5% salary award that forms the final part of the 3 year pay deal that was reluctantly agreed by UK University Management body UCEA following the industrial action taken by UCU in May 2006. In conjunction with the VC's newsletter last month [see News item for 15 September 2008] the worrying implication of this letter is that the University considered that honouring this final stage of the pay deal was optional. On the hand it reveals the power of national bargaining [which UCU believes should be formally extended to cover the professorial scale] and gives a chilling hint of what could happen if national bargaining were abolished. It also serves as a strong encouragement to all Professors to join the UCU.
21 October 2009. Research excellence to be assessed on basis of economic and social impact. Concerns about the Research Excellence Framework that will replace the RAE as the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK HEIs have been heightened by the revelation that 25% of the assessment score will be based on the economic and social impact of the research. Although the proposed new Framework is currently a consultation document, it has been revealed that only 3 of 14 members of the Steering Group that will review the consultation process are from the HE sector, the remainder being from private companies and government departments. Today Sally Hunt wrote a letter [see here] to the Chief Executive of HEFCE to express concern about the unbalanced membership of this steering group.
UCU believes that it is counterproductive to make funding for the best research conditional on its perceived economic and social benefits, and that the REF proposals are founded on a lack of understanding of how knowledge advances. It is often difficult to predict which research will create the greatest practical impact. History shows us that in many instances it is curiosity-driven research that has led to major scientific and cultural advances. If implemented, these proposals risk undermining support for basic research across all disciplines and may well lead to an academic brain drain to countries such as the United States that continue to value fundamental research.
Universities must continue to be spaces in which the spirit of adventure thrives and where researchers enjoy academic freedom to push back the boundaries of knowledge in their disciplines. UCU is therefore calling on the UK funding councils to withdraw the current REF proposals and to work with academics and researchers on creating a funding regime which supports and fosters basic research in our universities and colleges rather than discourages it. A "Stand up for Research" petition has been set up by UCU that has already been signed by over 2000 UK academics, including 6 Nobel prize winners. All academic and research staff are strongly urged to sign the petition at http://www.ucu.org.uk/standupforresearch, and to encourage colleagues who are not members of UCU to do so too.
1 September 2009. Urgent message from UCU general secretary regarding London Metropolitan University (LMU) Toward the end of last year, LMU was hit by a £15 million reduction in recurring grant and repayment demands totalling more than £36 million by HEFCE following submissions of incorrect student completion records. The university responded by stating that they intended to cut 550 posts. Despite UCU's best efforts to persuade the university to enter into formal negotiations to reach a resolution, and a vigorous, nationally and regionally supported branch campaign, including industrial action, the university is forging ahead with the planned compulsory redundancies – the first 50 FTEs of which are imminent. The situation at London Metropolitan University is unprecedented. The vice-chancellor, Brian Roper resigned in March and a special report into HEFCE’s role in the crisis at LMU was published last month (available here). After months of public pressure from the academic community, UCU and our sister unions, Deloitte Touche have been commissioned to undertake an independent inquiry into the situation at London Met and UCU will be contributing to this inquiry.
In spite of UCU's calls for a suspension of LMU's redundancy proposals until after the independent reports have been made public, the management appears dogmatically committed to press on with its plans. We cannot stand back and allow this university to be destroyed. We cannot stand by and allow hundreds of staff and students pay the price for a catastrophic failure of management and governance. As a national union, we must be able to say that it is unacceptable for staff to pay for mismanagement with their jobs and students to suffer huge detriment to their education and we must establish the principle that universities must be accountable for their actions. Therefore, as of today, 1 September, UCU will be asking colleagues across the country, other trade unions, labour movement organisations and the international academic community to support our members at the university in any way possible, including:
* non-attendance, speaking at or organising academic or other conferences at LMU
* not applying for any advertised jobs at LMU
* not giving lectures at LMU
* not accepting positions as visiting professors or researchers at LMU
* not writing for any academic journal which is edited at or produced by LMU
* not taking up new contracts as external examiners for taught courses
If you are able to support in this way, please email: jstephens@ucu.org.uk
20 August 2009. Trade unions holding back sector, says leaked report. The THES today revealed the contents of a leaked confidential document from a June workshop for University human resources directors on "Doing More with Less". According to the THES article, the report states that the sector's current employment model is "looking increasingly inappropriate". "Senior HR people believe that the time has come to challenge how the trade unions influence the 'business' of higher education, and realise that the traditional approach is holding back individual institutions and the sector in its totality," it says. "Workload models no longer fit new styles of service delivery, are ineffective and too inflexible."
The document entitled "A Challenging Time for Universities", also states that statutes, ordinances and other governance requirements leave the sector lacking agility in decision-making, and describes the culture of higher education as "fearful and conservative". It recommends that staff ratios should be benchmarked with other kinds of organisation, and concludes that workforce modernisation, better employee engagement, simplification of systems and "talent management" will increase productivity during the lean years. It notes that many universities have already frozen recruitment and introduced voluntary redundancy schemes: "And this is just the start - the real squeeze is yet to come." Perhaps even more alarmingly [if that were possible] it states that "There is increasing debate about pension scheme deficits and the extremely high cost of maintaining final salary schemes".
The THES article also points out that although University staff have been offered a derisory 0.5% payrise, some vice-chancellors are understood to have argued for higher salaries for themselves so as to offset the larger tax deductions they will have to pay next year under a new tax regime for high earners. Read the full story here.
10 August 2009. Newcastle University management proposes a major revision of the Statutes. In a disturbing development that has taken UCU by surprise, Newcastle University has announced its intention to request a major revision of the Statutes. For those who are not familiar with the Statutes, they constitute a set of regulations that govern the way in which the University is run, and in particular the procedures for the appointment and dismissal of academic staff. Part of their importance is that they can only be altered with the approval of the Privy Council. Since the establishment of Newcastle University they have only been changed on a very small number of occasions. Most alarmingly, the University is now proposing to remove all of the provisions, set out in Statute 57, that require the University to follow a series of complex procedures in order to make a member of academic staff redundant [for details click here], and instead to endow the Vice Chancellor [or "other designated person or persons"] with sweeping powers to suspend from duty, with or without pay, or to dismiss or make redundant any member of staff. Such proposals would raise concerns at any time, but in the current climate where many Universities are considering compulsory redundancy, they are extremely alarming and are strongly opposed by UCU.
5 August 2009. INTO ventures post record losses. Some three years ago the University entered into a controversial partnership in which the private company INTO took over the running of the University's English language courses for pre-entry international students. The latest figures available show that the partnership with Newcastle University made a loss in 2007/8 of almost £1 million, and that INTO partnerships with three other Universities made losses of a similar magnitude. UCU has also discovered that Andrew Colin, the sole shareholder of INTO University Partnerships had, up to 31 July 2008, lent the company £5.5m in the form of interest free loans. For further details click here
1 August 2009. Universities failing on standards. In a report published today, covered by the BBC on its national news, the Commons Universities Select Committee has concluded that the current system for ensuring quality amongst degrees awarded by UK Universities is "out of date", and that "Inconsistency in standards is rife". It describes as "absurd and disreputable" the claim that the growing demand for courses, including from overseas students, is proof that university standards are being maintained, and calls for urgent action to improve how universities safeguard the quality of degrees. The cross-party committee attacks university leaders for failing to "give a straightforward answer to the simple question of whether first class honours degrees achieved at different universities indicate the same or different intellectual standards". And the MPs question why universities have failed to explain the rapid increase in the number of top grade degrees being awarded. To protect the "integrity" of degrees, the committee calls for a radical overhaul of the current watchdog, the Quality Assurance Agency, replacing it with an independent body charged with maintaining academic standards. The report casts doubt on the reliability of self-regulation by universities and calls for tighter rules for external examiners and a way of comparing standards in different institutions. Read the full story here.
24 July 2009. Major cuts in University funding announced. UCU has strongly criticised the decision by HEFCE to reduce funding for university teaching by £65 million. The union said that the new efficiency savings would do irreparable damage to quality and provision in the country. The £65 million cut is the first part of government plans to make a £180 million pounds worth of "efficiency savings" from higher education by 2010-2011. UCU today warned that the £65m will equate to the loss of a further 1,500 full time lecturing and support staff just days after the union revealed university staffing cuts affecting 100,000 students.
17 July 2009. HE unions condemn 'appalling' final offer on pay and jobs. The five higher education unions issued a joint statement this week condemning the employers' final offer on pay and job security as 'appalling'. At a meeting of 'new JNCHES' on Wednesday 15 July, UCEA, made a final offer of a 0.5% pay rise, which the unions noted was significantly below the 1.5% offered to the FE unions. UCEA also persisted in claiming they have 'no mandate' to negotiate on a national agreement on job security, in spite of the jobs crisis consuming higher education.
13 July 2009. End of retirement age signalled. The BBC reported today that a government review of the default retirement age, which allows employers to compel staff to retire at 65, is to be brought forward by a year. BBC home editor Mark Easton said ministers had effectively signalled an end to the default retirement age. Ministers said they had brought the review forward to respond to changing demographic and economic circumstances. Separately, the Court of Appeal will hear a legal challenge to the default retirement age this week in a case backed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. A solicitor, Leslie Seldon, believes he was discriminated against on the grounds of age when he was not permitted to work beyond the age of 65. A number of other age discrimination cases are awaiting the outcome of this and another challenge being brought against the government by the charities Help the Aged and Age Concern following an earlier ruling by the European Court of Justice that the UK Courts must consider carefully whether enforced retirement amounts to discrimination. Regardless of how the courts interpret current legislation, all of the major political parties seem to be coming to the view that making it illegal to discriminate against someone because of their age, except if they are over 65, is absurd, and that "Ageism needs to be stopped, full stop". To read the full BBC article, click here.
10 July 2009. Cuts crisis worsens in London and Reading. The jobs crisis in London's higher education sector has worsened this week with the news that King's College London is looking to cut 10% off its staff budget and UCL confirmed that it wants cuts of 6%. According to union calculations, these cuts alone could translate into more than 800 jobs, joining the announcement last week that Imperial College was looking to slash 130 jobs from its Faculty of Medicine and the news that London Met is still intent on cutting around 160 jobs this year. UCU is working with the branches involved on coordinating the union's response to this wave of cuts. Reading University has also joined the ranks of job slashing universities with the announcement that it would be looking to slash 10% off its staff budget. The university became the centre of public attention recently when it axed a Health and Social Care department in the midst of a national crisis concerning a shortage of social workers, only a couple of years after cutting a strategically important Physics department.
Furious UCU members at London Metropolitan have called a second day of strike action, to be held jointly with UNISON, on 14 July. The further escalation of the dispute is a consequence of London Met's management's persistent failure to consult in a meaningful manner and its insistence on pressing on with compulsory redundancies in spite of revelations about mismanagement and poor leadership. If you haven't already signed the petition to save London Met, please do so. Petition.
16 June 2009. Congress report. Last week the Newcastle UCU delegates attended the annual National UCU Congress. Not surprisingly, the main focus of interest was the developing crisis in Higher Education, and the derisory pay offer that we have received. However, many other topics were also discussed. For more details click here.
4 June 2009. Denham blames poor teaching for increase in university dropouts. Secretary of State for Universities John Denham caused outrage this week when he blamed poor teaching for the increased number of university dropouts. In a letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Denham said: "No doubt there will be a number of factors to explain why certain institutions have particularly low retention rates. However, it seems likely that the quality of teaching and the student experience will be important components." UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt said: "I am outraged and astonished that the minister is trying to suggest that the reason for an increase in dropouts is down to poor teaching. His comments are another kick in the teeth for lecturers whose reward for all their extra hard work has been an insulting pay offer of just 0.4% and the news that, as students numbers increase again this year, 100 universities are planning to axe jobs. If John Denham is looking for reasons why students are dropping out, it may be worth him considering the record levels of debt that the government is saddling them with."
15 May 2009. Plans to axe Liverpool University departments are shelved. Plans to axe the philosophy, politics and communications and statistics departments at Liverpool University have been dropped after protests from lecturers and students in the city. Following noisy protests at meetings to close the Departments and a lengthy campaign by staff and students, the university has recommended that the Departments should be given the opportunity to implement recovery plans in an effort to improve research performance. The three departments were originally signalled out for closure following the publication of the Research Assessment Exercise, which rates the quality of research in university departments.
Sally Hunt, said: 'No university can build and maintain an international reputation for excellence if it panics and starts axing departments every time it spots a short-term problem. The staff and students at Liverpool have run a brilliant campaign and we are delighted that the university has actually listened to what the academic community had to say. Sadly, these cuts, and the thinking behind them, are symptomatic of a wider malaise across higher education.'
7 May 2009. Thousands of jobs to go at universities as budgets slashed by £150m. This was the headline of an article that appeared in the Times newspaper this morning. The article went on to state: "John Denham, the Skills Secretary, will warn university and further education chiefs in a letter today that they will have to find savings of £300 million — the lion’s share of a £400 million cut across his department next year. The cutback is a result of Alistair Darling’s decision to reduce public spending next year by £5 billion. Mr Denham will also make clear that inflation at minus 0.4 per cent should be taken into account in pay settlements, given the relatively generous 2.5 per cent rise in funding this year. He also said "I will be writing to both HEFCE and the Learning Skills Council, asking them to ensure we get the best return for taxpayers’ money, by cutting back on bureaucracy, inefficiencies and administrative overheads, and by concentrating spending on teaching and learning.” One VC of a leading institution described the cuts last night as “nonsensical”, adding that he was having to cut 250 staff before the cuts kick in next financial year. He knew of another top university planning to cut 300 jobs."
The cuts contrast with Tuesday's commitment to education from the Prime Minister who, in a speech on 'education for the new global age', said: 'The downturn is no time to slow down our investment in education but rather to build more vigorously for the future. Under this government, education will not become a victim of the recession, but rather the focus of our path to recovery and long-term growth.'
5 May 2009. Ballot for industrial action begins. In the absence of any retraction by the Employers of their threats of widescale job cuts in the HE sector or of any improvement in their derisory pay offer, ballot papers were sent out to all members at the end of last week and should be arriving in University mail boxes in the next few days. Sally Hunt today sent out a message to members urging them to support the Union leadership in the ballot by voting Yes to industrial action to defend jobs, Yes to defend pay, and Yes to defend education. To read the full text of Sally's message, click here. To read a summary of the issues underlying the dispute, and a rebuttal of the propaganda being issued by the employers, click here.
28 April 2009. UCU rejects 'derisory' pay offer of just 0.3%. At the new JNCHES negotiation meeting yesterday, the Employer's Association UCEA made a pay offer of 0.3% for 2009/10, and at the same time provided no credible response to UCU's call for a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancies. The employers' inadequate response was rejected by UCU and the other "campus" trade unions. In response to this united front and to UCU's decision to ballot members for industrial action, UCEA have now tentatively agreed to further urgent talks at national level. In view of the lack of a satisfactory response from UCEA, a ballot for industrial action will begin next week. In a statement sent out to all members, Sally Hunt made clear that "It is vital that we win the forthcoming ballot in order to keep up the pressure."
22 April 2009. UCU in dispute with employers. In view of the continuation of UCEA's threat of massive redundancies in the HE sector, their refusal to enter into a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancies, and their failure to provide any pay offer, UCU declared today that it was in dispute with the employers until they make a credible proposal which is acceptable to UCU and its
members. Failing acceptable progress a ballot for industrial action will begin on 1 May 2009.
16 April 2009. National Negotiations Latest. Today Sally Hunt issued the following message.
"UCU and its fellow trade unions met UCEA on 30 March to receive what we thought would be an initial pay offer. However at this meeting the employers informed the unions that:
· it was not possible to make a pay offer
· up to 100 HE institutions were making plans for collective redundancies
· salary increases would need to be 'traded off' against job protection.
UCEA has indicated that up to 100 institutions, around two-thirds of participating institutions, are looking to lose people. They were keen to state that they wanted trade union negotiators to keep job security in mind. Our own research indicates that the scale of job cuts is substantial. Every UCU member, whatever type of institution they work in, is potentially vulnerable as current proposals for cuts at institutions as varied as the universities of Liverpool, Reading, Hertfordshire, and London Metropolitan show. In this situation of great uncertainty for staff across the UK, national negotiations are required to protect jobs. UCU has therefore asked UCEA to sit down with the unions now to reach a national agreement on the avoidance of redundancies by its member institutions. Given the urgency of the situation we are seeking this commitment and a response to other matters relating to salaries and equality issues by 20 April. Failing this, I am mandated to consider balloting members for industrial action to secure an effective job protection agreement from the national employers. I know that many of you share my view that cooperation between employers and the unions will be essential during the current economic difficulties. We must build a shared agenda to ensure staff rewards continue to be competitive and that jobs are protected. Now is the time for the employers to show they are serious about partnership by joining us to protect jobs."
10 April 2009. Newcastle Executives decide to freeze their pay. Newcastle University announced that the University's senior management team has decided to forego a pay rise this year in the light of the global economic situation. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Brink, and ten other members of the Executive Board, took the decision ahead of next month's meeting of the Remuneration Committee, which normally determines an appropriate pay package. Professor Brink said: "The University is mindful of the effects that the recession is having on the lives of many people and it would seem prudent to show restraint in a sector which receives substantial public funding. So far, the University's financial position has not been seriously affected by the recession but the Executive felt that they should be sensitive to public feeling and exercise restraint during the current difficulties." Following the huge payrises that senior University managers have received in recent years [see for example the News item for 26 March], often greatly exceeding those that they have begrudgingly awarded to other University staff, many will feel that such restraint was long overdue and should become the norm even when the recession is over.
2 April 2009. UCEA refuses to make pay offer. UCU was shocked to hear at the pay talks last week that UCEA has decided not to make a pay offer to the higher education unions. With job losses being threatened across higher education, it appears that University bosses have been focusing on dumping, rather than rewarding, staff, despite their own recent exorbitant salary increases. Sally Hunt said: "The employers need to get their act together, and fast. We will now be seeking further discussions on pay, jobs and equality issues. The employers should bring a serious offer to the table as a matter of urgency".
26 March 2009. Academic and VC payrises compared. A recent survey of academic salaries has revealed that the average salary of an academic rose by 5.7% in the year 2007/8. In the same period the salaries of Vice Chancellors rose by 9%, up from the 8% increase enjoyed the previous year. The pension contributions of VCs rose even more, by a staggering 16% compared with the previous year. The average VC pay is now more than £190,000, and 71 VCs are paid more than the prime minister! UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "As some universities call for higher university fees and staff are being warned that any pay increases may lead to redundancies, it is quite incredible and rather distasteful that vice-chancellors again enjoyed such exorbitant pay rises. These staff pay rises date from the middle of a three-year pay deal that we were told was at the brink of affordability. That vice-chancellors were pocketing close to twice the pay rise they begrudged staff at the time is extraordinary."
24 March 2009. Threats of redundancy spread through the sector. Within weeks of the announcement by the Obama administration of its economic stimulus package, in which a major component comprises a massive investment in higher education and research, there are growing indications that the response of the British Government and Vice Chancellors to the economic crisis is to cut academic courses and jobs. In the wake of London Metropolitan University's intention to axe 500 jobs to pay for managerial incompetence, eight Departments and their staff at Liverpool University have been put at risk as part of a "restructuring plan", and this week cuts have been announced at Reading, Strathclyde, Sussex, and Warwick. Sally Hunt commented, "I believe that making teachers, lecturers and those who support learning redundant.... during a recession is nothing more than an act of academic vandalism".
16 March 2009. Dispute with UCEA resolved. UCU's Higher Education Committee agreed today to proposals from the employers which resolve the current dispute. UCU said that it was looking to take forward a new agenda for negotiations around pay and conditions for university staff. The four issues that had threatened to destabilise the sector were employer threats of a pay freeze and the undermining of national bargaining, UCU's ability to take industrial action at a time of its choosing and the lack of opportunity for unions to discuss issues relevant to distinct occupations across higher education. Following extensive talks UCEA has now ruled out a pay freeze for the forthcoming pay round and has reaffirmed its commitment to national bargaining. Crucially a review of the negotiating timetable has been agreed and it is accepted that the timetable does not restrict the ability for UCU to take industrial action. An agreement has also been made that issues relating to distinct occupations can be discussed with the relevant unions.
25 February 2009. Workload Planning. A serious situation is developing at Newcastle University following a recent unexpected thrust by Management to deploy a detailed metrication system of workload planning, in which every task performed by academic staff will be given a points score based on the time that Management believe the task should take. Staff are expected to achieve a "norm" of 1800 points, based on the Management calculation that staff work 1800 hours per year [45 weeks at 40 hours per week]. A typical scheme is the Workload Planning Model for the Faculty of Medical Sciences, which has provoked widespread outrage amongst academic staff there. Similar schemes, but with bizarre and inexplicable differences in the details of the metrication, have been proposed by other Faculties, Schools, and Institutes across the University. Some while ago, Newcastle UCU agreed with Management a general Workload Planning Policy which made no mention of metrication, and instead affirmed the principles that staff should not be given excessive workloads, put under unreasonable pressure, expected to work excessive hours, etc, etc.
Newcastle UCU is extremely concerned about these developments for the following reasons;
1. They represent a fundamental change in the employment conditions of academic staff, and as such should not be implemented without full consultation and negotiation with Newcastle UCU
2. They take no account of the fact that most academic staff work way beyond the normal contracted hours, and in essence these metrication plans represent an attempt by Management to formalize the excessive workloads [currently undertaken on a voluntary basis] by coercing staff to agree that the tasks they currently perform can be accommodated into a normal 40 hour week [which for grade F staff should be a 37 hour week]
3. The metrication schemes themselves are absurd, taking no account of class sizes, marking, preparation time, the fact that papers published in different journals involve vastly different amounts of work, etc, etc. Interestingly being Head of Department can merit a massive 1200 points! By contrast, if you have a large grant you get only 400 points, and you would need to publish 28 first or last author papers per year [at 50 points each] to bring your total to 1800 per year!
4. They represent a major attack on the professionalism and dedication of academic staff, and on academic freedom.
5. If any form of metrication were to be used to evaluate academic workloads it should be based on the UCU Workload Protection Guidelines. Please note that this is currently a draft document, and has not yet been officially agreed as UCU policy.
23 January 2009. 22% increase for UCEA chief who called for staff 'pay restraint'. Chair of UCEA Professor Bill Wakeham has seen his own pay increase by 22% to
£240,000 in the two financial years since 2006 according to new UCU research. Professor Wakeham receives his salary as VC of Southampton University. He described UCU's 2009 pay claim as wholly "unrealistic" in a recent article for THE magazine! Sally Hunt's recent article in the THES on the pay negotiations.
17 January 2009. Likely end to compulsory retirement. In spite of EU Directives and UK legislation against age discrimination in the workplace, employers can still force employees to retire at 65, in essence imposing compulsory redundancy with no right to redundancy payments. This is currently the subject of several legal challenges, including one brought by Age Concern to the European Court of Justice, where a formal judgement is expected in March [see News story 25 September 2008]. However, this case has now been pre-empted by a surprise announcement by the Business Department Minister Lord Carter that the Government's intention is to scrap compulsory retirement. It now seems likely that the Government review of the current retirement age of 65, due to report in 2011, will consider eliminating a fixed retirement age entirely and retaining a voluntary retirement age of 65 rather than opting to increase the compulsory retirement age to 68 as previously expected. It seems that apart from the issues of discrimination and redundancy, the Government has finally woken up to the fact that forcing people into retirement at 65 not only places increasing strains on the pension system as people live for longer, but is a huge waste of experience, skills, and knowledge to the economy. Since 2006 employees have had the right to request that they be allowed to continue to work beyond 65, but most employers, including Newcastle University, have been reluctant to accede to such requests. Even where employees are allowed to continue working beyond 65, the employer's pension contributions do not continue beyond 40 years of service [this milestone may of course be reached well before the age of 65], a matter which perhaps also needs to be challenged in the courts. For further detail on the Government's U-turn on retirement age, click here.
16 January 2009. HEFCE cash clawback threatens major redundancies at London Met. A quite unbelievable and shocking situation has developed at London Metropolitan University. As a result of previous gross mis-management by both themselves and HEFCE, the Management at London Met is threatening to make 330 FTE compulsory redundancies in addition to a voluntary redundancy scheme with very bad conditions. This is in response to HEFCE reducing annual funding by £18 million from 08/09 and threatening to take back £38 million overpayment based on overestimates of student numbers. In addition Amanda Sackur, NEC member and activist at London Met, is being disciplined for visiting Nottingham Trent. All members are urged to support their colleagues at London Met by signing the on-line petition. To read more details about the extraordinary cash problems at London Met, click here.
9 January 2009. UCEA finally agree to ACAS. UCEA this week agreed to UCU's offer of ACAS talks to resolve the outstanding issues between the two sides that have existed since February 2008. Faced with the previous refusal of UCEA to talk to UCU, the union's Higher Education Committee met in December and mandated the General Secretary to ballot members in HE for industrial action if satisfactory progress could not be made by the end of January 2009. The issues that will be addressed in the new talks are:
* UCU's right to negotiate on issues specific to the academic team
* whether employers will be allowed to opt in or out of future pay rises just as they please;
* UCU's right to take industrial action as a last resort should the need arise
* Serious discussion about pay and an end to provocative comments about 'zero pay rises' and 'pay freezes' in the sector.
Sally Hunt also today wrote to every member in HE outlining the union's position and promising to do everything possible to win a settlement that creates stability in the sector. She warned that this dispute is of the utmost importance to HE members. The dispute with UCEA is not just about pay but also about union's ability to represent its members effectively and deliver better salaries and conditions as we did in 2006. For this reason, she asks that HE members be ready to support the union should it become necessary. You can read Sally's letter to all members, as well as her letters to UCEA and to Vice Chancellors and more on this dispute by clicking here:
18 December 2008. Results of the RAE 2008 published. The results of the latest Research Assessment Exercise have been published. Thanks to the immense efforts of Newcastle University's Academics and Research Staff, Newcastle has maintained its position as one of the unquestionably most important research centres in the UK. Although we didn't of course come top of the list, according the analysis published in Research Fortnight we were 17th out of 162 Institutions. Cancer Studies, Clinical Medicine, Civil Engineering, Town & Country Planning, and Arts & Design were rated particularly highly. The VC issued a letter containing a summary of the results to all staff. Despite the tremendous success of the University, the tone of the letter was quite cool, and ended rather ominously by stating that over the next year the University will be engaged in a strategic review in which the results of the RAE will form a part of the process. NUCU will be watching this matter very carefully. The full text of the VC's letter.
10 December 2008. Universities claim they face a deficit. The BBC News website also carried an article today by the BBC's News Education Reporter Hannah Richardson on the report by commissioned by JNCHES following the pay dispute in 2006. Not surprisingly, in the run up to the next pay round, JNCHES are claiming that they are fast running out of cash as a result of the 15.9% 3-year paydeal and cutbacks in Government funding for higher education as a result of the financial crisis. The problem is that most Universities were in fact able to fund the 15.9% payrise quite comfortably [earlier in the year Newcastle University reported that its finances were in very good shape], and the Government has made no announcement of any cutbacks in higher education. For the full story, click here. For a similar rather longer article about the "University Crisis" published in the Guardian on 12th December, click here.
10 December 2008. Academics to act as immigration officers. As reported in an article on the BBC News website today, a petition was handed in to Downing Street by academics and students urging the Government to rethink new rules that will come into effect in March 2009 requiring Universities and academics to monitor whether overseas students are attending classes, and report failure to attend to the Authorities. Not only do many academics view this as an onerous and distasteful task, but there are significant questions as to whether these new regulations represent an infringement of basic human rights and a further move towards a total surveillance state. For the full story, click here.
8 December 2008. Letter from Sally Hunt on the deadlock between UCU and UCEA. Sally Hunt today sent out a letter to all UCU members providing an update on the serious issues that have emerged relating to the 2009 pay negotiations. Firstly, UCU has now requested a meeting with UCEA to provide reassurance to staff that they will not be faced with the nil percent increases suggested by Phil Harding, chair of the British Universities Finance Directors Group, in an interview with the THES in September [see News event for 10 November]. Secondly, UCU has requested that UCEA withdraw its proposal to allow every HE institution to 'opt in' or 'out out' of nationally agreed pay rises every year, which would make a mockery of national negotiations, and would lead to local bargaining with no protection for staff. Thirdly, UCU proposes immediate negotiations with UCEA to reach agreement on the conditions under which UCU will participate in pay negotiations, in particular that there should be a separate bilateral forum for UCU and UCEA to discuss the distinct interests of academic and related staff, and that negotiating timetable should be brought forward so that pay negotiations are completed well before the summer. Given the current impasse, UCU is proposing that both sides agree to ask a respected third party such as ACAS to facilitate urgent talks.
In the meantime, UCU is urging all members to write to the VC expressing their concern about the confrontational attitude of UCEA to pay negotiations, and in particular the proposed annual opt out from national pay bargaining, and requesting that the VC use his influence to get UCEA back to the negotiating table.
According to Newcastle University's pay negotiations website, "The University Council, at its meeting on 20 October, endorsed a recommendation by Executive Board that the University should participate in national pay negotiations for 2009/10". While this is of some relief, it provides no assurance that Newcastle University is committed in the long-term to national pay bargaining, and on the contrary implies that it is going along with UCEAs "opt-in opt-out" policy, and will decide on a year by year basis whether to implement pay deals reached at national level.
8 December 2008. Resolution of Nottingham Trent dispute. Following the decision by NTU in October to terminate recognition of UCU, the nationwide outcry and wave of support by UCU members for colleagues at NTU, coupled with the strike action taken by staff at NTU, has resulted in a new recognition agreement between UCU and the management at NTU which appears to be acceptable to both sides. Consequently, the calls for the greylisting of the university have been suspended with immediate effect.
5 December 2008. Universities who 'opt out' of national pay rises will face industrial action, warns UCU. UCEA has told universities they have until the end of March to opt out of national bargaining. In response, UCU's Higher Education Committee (HEC) today approved plans for the union to write to every university vice-chancellor and principal warning that if any institution does decide to 'opt out' of national bargaining it would face local industrial action and greylisting. UCU is pressing for urgent talks on the UCEA opt out, the exclusion of UCU from current bargaining structures, and the threats of a 'zero pay increase' from some institutions. UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'We view UCEA's macho strategy of refusing to talk to UCU, the largest highest education union, while at the same time encouraging universities to believe they can opt in and out of national pay deals, as a tactical disaster for our sector".
10 November 2008. Payclaim decided. Delegates at the UCU HE sector pay conference last week debated a host of motions relating to the pay claim and voted to press ahead with demands for a rise equivalent to the Retail Price Index (RPI) + 5% or an 8% increase, whichever is higher. Sally Hunt, said: 'Nobody can refute that staff in higher education work extremely hard or that they deserve to be properly rewarded. For too long university employers held down staff pay rises. 'Recent increases have gone someway to righting that wrong, but there is still a long way to go. UCU members are determined to defend the value of the pay rises they have won". Recent inflammatory remarks from some universities have suggested that their hard-working staff would be lucky to get a 0% pay rise next year. These remarks were apparently prompted by comments made by Phil Harding, chair of the British Universities Finance Directors Group, in an interview with the THES in September. He said that "The one message that is very clear from [University] financial directors is that any case for a 'catch-up' settlement has gone and payment [of the present 5% pay installment] in full and on time means that we start with an expectation of nil uplift for next year."
24 October 2008. Professorial staff begrudgingly awarded pay rise. The University's Professors today received letters in their mail boxes from the Director of Human Resources informing them that despite the fact that the professorial payscale is not covered by national pay bargaining the University has nonetheless decided that its professorial staff will in fact receive the 5% salary award that forms the final part of the 3 year pay deal that was reluctantly agreed by UK University Management body UCEA following the industrial action taken by UCU in May 2006. In conjunction with the VC's newsletter last month [see News item for 15 September 2008] the worrying implication of this letter is that the University considered that honouring this final stage of the pay deal was optional. On the hand it reveals the power of national bargaining [which UCU believes should be formally extended to cover the professorial scale] and gives a chilling hint of what could happen if national bargaining were abolished. It also serves as a strong encouragement to all Professors to join the UCU.
21 October 2008. Announcement of General Meeting of Newcastle UCU. The
next General Meeting of Newcastle UCU will be held on Wednesday 28th
October in at 1pm in Lecture Theatre 2.3 in the Daysh Building. The main topics for discussion are
Newcastle University's consultation document on revisions of the
Probation procedure for newly appointed staff, and the University's
draft Academic Job Summary. All members are encouraged to
attend. To view the complete documents, click here: Probation Procedure Academic Job Summary
6 October 2008. Newcastle UCU newsletter launched. The first edition of Newcastle UCU's own newsletter was released today. It includes articles on the latest and final instalment of the current 2006-9 paydeal [which is expected to provide an ~5% increase in our pay from October], new management proposals on Probation, concerns about the aftermath of RAE2008 and what might replace the RAE, and much more. To download your own copy of what may well become one of the highest impact publications in its field, click here: Newcastle UCU Newsletter Autumn 2008.
29 September 2008. New payround negotiations begin. The first meeting of "New JNCHES", involving HE trade unions and the employers association UCEA, took place today, and the principal outcome of the meeting was to agree a timetable for the forthcoming round of negotiations on HE sector pay from 1 August 2009. "New JNCHES" is a restructured form of JNCHES (Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff), set up following the 2006-2009 pay settlement [see News item for 28 March 2008]. As a result of the ballot earlier in the year in which the UCU membership overwhelming rejected the employers' proposals for the new negotiating machinery, UCU is not a formal participant in "New JNCHES" but it has been agreed that UCU representatives will attend the meetings on an "observer" basis. Despite threats by some University Managements to withdraw from national bargaining, it appears that most if not all Universities, including Newcastle, have implicitly endorsed the "New JNCHES" machinery and thereby the continuation of national pay bargaining, in line with Union demands. Newcastle University has even set up its own pay negotiations website - make sure to add to your favourites!
25 September 2008. Progress and setbacks in the battle against age discrimination. According to a report by the BBC, Harriet Harman is expected to announce this week the introduction of new legislation to outlaw all forms of age discrimination. Age discrimination in the workplace was supposedly made illegal in 2006, but the law is now expected to be extended into other areas including travel, health, and motor insurance. However, "beneficial" age distinctions, such as free bus passes and holidays for the over-50s or 18-to-30s, will be exempt. One area in which age discrimination in the workplace has persisted has been with regards the imposition of a compulsory retirement age. Since 2006, UK law was changed to give employees the right to request that they be allowed to continue working after 65, but employees are not obliged to acceed to such requests. In essence, the current situation allows employees to be summarily dismissed without redundancy payments at the employers mandatory retirement age, generally 65. This interpretation was challenged two years ago in a case submitted to the European Court of Justice by Age Concern. Last week the advocate general of the Court issued a preliminary ruling that affirmed that the EU Equality Treatment Directive did apply in such situations, but that age discrimination [in this case in the form of compulsory retirement] was permissible if it could be justified. Although the opinion of the Advocate-General is not legally binding, it is only occasionally reversed by the full judgement of the Court which will be announced in about six months time. For further details on this click here.
19 September 2008. Elections for Newcastle Branch Committee. Now's the time to nominate or be nominated...... and help Newcastle UCU in its work. There will be elections for a Treasurer and two committee members. These posts will run from the end of October 2008 until the AGM in June 2009. But hurry - nomination papers must be delivered to the UCU Office by 5pm on Wednesday 1 October. For more details, including how to obtain a nomination form, click here.
15 September 2008. VC committed to honour pay rise. In his latest letter to staff at Newcastle University, dated 11/9/08, the VC included the following statements: "As has happened in previous years, we finished the academic year 07/08 with a budgetary surplus. Barring unforeseeable circumstances, we are confident of meeting all our financial obligations, as well as planned investment in research, teaching and engagement over the coming financial year. For example, we will pay in full the final instalment of the last national pay settlement, without any deferment. That pay settlement made provision in 2008/09 for “2.5% or RPI, whichever is greater”. In the event, RPI will be about 5% (the September figure will be published in mid October) and we are committed to an institution-wide increase in salary of this amount to be paid with November salary but back dated to 1st October." Members will be pleased to hear that the University is committed to the major pay deal that was won through the concerted action of UCU members 2 years ago, but they will also be disturbed by the implication that the University did not consider that it was obliged to honour the agreement!
5 September 2008. Success at Bishop Auckland. As a result of the strong solidarity of the Bishop Auckland College members and invaluable help from national and regional UCU officials, we are happy to report that the Section 188 letter has been suspended for 2 months which will enable collective bargaining to now commence. Negotiations over proposed contractual changes at Bishop Auckland College will now take place over the next two months without the threat of dismissal. Management had issued the union with a section 188 notice in late July indicating their intention to dismiss and re-engage, on inferior terms, all teaching staff who did not agree to changes to their employment contracts. This notice had been issued with no indication from the college as to what changes they were seeking to make to contracts and was an attempt to conduct negotiations in a "take it or leave" manner with a gun against the heads of the union's negotiators.
5 September 2008. Problems at Coventry too. Yesterday, Coventry UCU held a well attended general meeting to discuss plans for industrial action that is planned to take place on 30th September and 9th October. The dispute has arisen because of the university's attempts to introduce a pay and grading structure that is based entirely on performance related pay mechanisms and which lowers the grade boundaries set out in the National Framework Agreement. The University has also taken the unprecedented step of offering new contracts to individuals in attempts to lure them away from collectively bargained terms and conditions of employment. Much like the dispute at NTU - the situation at Coventry affects all of us - it is a direct attack on collective bargaining. Members are urged to write to the VC, Madeleine Atkins [who will be well-known to many staff at Newcastle], to condemn the actions of the university and to express support for the local branch. Professor Atkins can be contacted at vco010@coventry.ac.uk and members are urged to copy their letters or emails to branch chair John Rogerson at edu128@coventry.ac.uk
5 September 2008. Continuing serious situation at Nottingham Trent University. UCU members at NTU are will be voting next week on strike action following the University's formal termination of recognition of UCU. Feelings are running very high at Nottingham Trent and throughout the academic community because of the utterly unacceptable behaviour of the University. The breaking of the recognition agreement is the culmination of a series of incidents where agreements made by UCU on behalf of members have been disregarded by the University. The situation could not be more serious. Locally there has been huge support to push for strike action and even an international boycott of the University if that is what is required to get this situation sorted. If you haven't already signed the petition [see below] please do so. Many thanks to all those who have.
20 August 2008. A lecturer who was forced to resign over remarked exam papers wins an unfair dismissal case. As reported in an article in the Times today [read full article here] a tribunal in Southampton unanimously found in favour of Dr Paul Buckland, an eminent professor of environmental archaeology, in his case against Bournemouth University for unfair dismissal in a ruling that sends a warning to universities against artificially inflating their results. Professor Paul Buckland and a board of external examiners failed 14 students on the Environmental Archaeology course at Bournemouth University in 2006 but officials, including the course leader, Dr Miles Russell, intervened when the students failed their re-sits to give them all pass marks. Dr Brian Astin, chair of the board of examiners and the dean of the school of conservation approved the change. The ruling reinforces comments made by Professor Geoffrey Alderman, former chair of the academic council at the University of London in June, that University league tables put lecturers under pressure to mark positively and have led to a dramatic increase in the number of first class degrees awarded. Professor Buckland could receive a financial payout or be reinstated. The UCU who supported his appeal said that the ruling sent a clear and important message to other universities that they cannot inflate grades to make themselves appear more attractive to undergraduates.
11 July 2008. Nottingham Trent UCU branch is derecognised. Support has flooded in to members at Nottingham Trent university after news broke that management were unilaterally imposing new and radically inferior collective bargaining arrangements on the union, effectively derecognising the branch. An online petition opened at lunchtime on Wednesday has already garnered a staggering 4000 signatures, while hundreds of messages of support have streamed in from all sectors of the union across the country and even from our sister union, the Canadian AUT. General Secretary Sally Hunt has said: "Nottingham Trent University
needs to understand that UCU does not take threats like this lightly. Union members have a right to expect to be properly protected at work and not messed around like this. The University can rest assured that it will feel the full force of the national union if it persists with trying to dictate the terms of the recognition agreement. The University's behaviour is insulting and its timing is cowardly, right at the end of the academic year. If the University hoped to sneak this through without a fuss, it is severely mistaken."
***WHAT YOU CAN DO***
If you have NOT already done so, please sign the petition now. This attack on members at Nottingham Trent is in reality an attack on all of us. We need to make this the biggest petition that UCU has ever launched to set down a marker that this form of management is totally unacceptable. PLEASE SIGN NOW
For more information, click here
16 June 2008. Greylisting of Keele University suspended. As a result of the concerted action taken by National UCU and local branch members, an interim settlement acceptable to the local UCU branch has now been reached at Keele University and consequently, the calls for greylisting of the university have been suspended. UCU and management have agreed the following: 1. A process will be put in place to determine the details of academic programmes within the proposed School; 2. The University will negotiate with UCU, terms for voluntary severance to offer to staff from the areas affected; 3. The offer of voluntary severance will remain open until 31 January 2009; 4. The University agrees not to deduct any pay in respect of the industrial action short of a strike; 5. UCU accepts that these measures are intended to minimise and avoid the need to consider compulsory redundancies. UCU reserves its right to oppose any compulsory redundancies. The Keele branch of UCU and the national union are clear that the interim settlement reached should enable the university to avoid compulsory redundancies. However, if the management does not conduct the negotiations in the spirit which has been agreed, greylisting and the action short of a strike can be reinstated.
6 October 2008. Newcastle UCU newsletter launched. The first edition of Newcastle UCU's own newsletter was released today. It includes articles on the latest and final instalment of the current 2006-9 paydeal [which is expected to provide an ~5% increase in our pay from October], new management proposals on Probation, concerns about the aftermath of RAE2008 and what might replace the RAE, and much more. To download your own copy of what may well become one of the highest impact publications in its field, click here: Newcastle UCU Newsletter Autumn 2008.
29 September 2008. New payround negotiations begin. The first meeting of "New JNCHES", involving HE trade unions and the employers association UCEA, took place today, and the principal outcome of the meeting was to agree a timetable for the forthcoming round of negotiations on HE sector pay from 1 August 2009. "New JNCHES" is a restructured form of JNCHES (Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff), set up following the 2006-2009 pay settlement [see News item for 28 March 2008]. As a result of the ballot earlier in the year in which the UCU membership overwhelming rejected the employers' proposals for the new negotiating machinery, UCU is not a formal participant in "New JNCHES" but it has been agreed that UCU representatives will attend the meetings on an "observer" basis. Despite threats by some University Managements to withdraw from national bargaining, it appears that most if not all Universities, including Newcastle, have implicitly endorsed the "New JNCHES" machinery and thereby the continuation of national pay bargaining, in line with Union demands. Newcastle University has even set up its own pay negotiations website - make sure to add to your favourites!
25 September 2008. Progress and setbacks in the battle against age discrimination. According to a report by the BBC, Harriet Harman is expected to announce this week the introduction of new legislation to outlaw all forms of age discrimination. Age discrimination in the workplace was supposedly made illegal in 2006, but the law is now expected to be extended into other areas including travel, health, and motor insurance. However, "beneficial" age distinctions, such as free bus passes and holidays for the over-50s or 18-to-30s, will be exempt. One area in which age discrimination in the workplace has persisted has been with regards the imposition of a compulsory retirement age. Since 2006, UK law was changed to give employees the right to request that they be allowed to continue working after 65, but employees are not obliged to acceed to such requests. In essence, the current situation allows employees to be summarily dismissed without redundancy payments at the employers mandatory retirement age, generally 65. This interpretation was challenged two years ago in a case submitted to the European Court of Justice by Age Concern. Last week the advocate general of the Court issued a preliminary ruling that affirmed that the EU Equality Treatment Directive did apply in such situations, but that age discrimination [in this case in the form of compulsory retirement] was permissible if it could be justified. Although the opinion of the Advocate-General is not legally binding, it is only occasionally reversed by the full judgement of the Court which will be announced in about six months time. For further details on this click here.
19 September 2008. Elections for Newcastle Branch Committee. Now's the time to nominate or be nominated...... and help Newcastle UCU in its work. There will be elections for a Treasurer and two committee members. These posts will run from the end of October 2008 until the AGM in June 2009. But hurry - nomination papers must be delivered to the UCU Office by 5pm on Wednesday 1 October. For more details, including how to obtain a nomination form, click here.
15 September 2008. VC committed to honour pay rise. In his latest letter to staff at Newcastle University, dated 11/9/08, the VC included the following statements: "As has happened in previous years, we finished the academic year 07/08 with a budgetary surplus. Barring unforeseeable circumstances, we are confident of meeting all our financial obligations, as well as planned investment in research, teaching and engagement over the coming financial year. For example, we will pay in full the final instalment of the last national pay settlement, without any deferment. That pay settlement made provision in 2008/09 for “2.5% or RPI, whichever is greater”. In the event, RPI will be about 5% (the September figure will be published in mid October) and we are committed to an institution-wide increase in salary of this amount to be paid with November salary but back dated to 1st October." Members will be pleased to hear that the University is committed to the major pay deal that was won through the concerted action of UCU members 2 years ago, but they will also be disturbed by the implication that the University did not consider that it was obliged to honour the agreement!
5 September 2008. Success at Bishop Auckland. As a result of the strong solidarity of the Bishop Auckland College members and invaluable help from national and regional UCU officials, we are happy to report that the Section 188 letter has been suspended for 2 months which will enable collective bargaining to now commence. Negotiations over proposed contractual changes at Bishop Auckland College will now take place over the next two months without the threat of dismissal. Management had issued the union with a section 188 notice in late July indicating their intention to dismiss and re-engage, on inferior terms, all teaching staff who did not agree to changes to their employment contracts. This notice had been issued with no indication from the college as to what changes they were seeking to make to contracts and was an attempt to conduct negotiations in a "take it or leave" manner with a gun against the heads of the union's negotiators.
5 September 2008. Problems at Coventry too. Yesterday, Coventry UCU held a well attended general meeting to discuss plans for industrial action that is planned to take place on 30th September and 9th October. The dispute has arisen because of the university's attempts to introduce a pay and grading structure that is based entirely on performance related pay mechanisms and which lowers the grade boundaries set out in the National Framework Agreement. The University has also taken the unprecedented step of offering new contracts to individuals in attempts to lure them away from collectively bargained terms and conditions of employment. Much like the dispute at NTU - the situation at Coventry affects all of us - it is a direct attack on collective bargaining. Members are urged to write to the VC, Madeleine Atkins [who will be well-known to many staff at Newcastle], to condemn the actions of the university and to express support for the local branch. Professor Atkins can be contacted at vco010@coventry.ac.uk and members are urged to copy their letters or emails to branch chair John Rogerson at edu128@coventry.ac.uk
5 September 2008. Continuing serious situation at Nottingham Trent University. UCU members at NTU are will be voting next week on strike action following the University's formal termination of recognition of UCU. Feelings are running very high at Nottingham Trent and throughout the academic community because of the utterly unacceptable behaviour of the University. The breaking of the recognition agreement is the culmination of a series of incidents where agreements made by UCU on behalf of members have been disregarded by the University. The situation could not be more serious. Locally there has been huge support to push for strike action and even an international boycott of the University if that is what is required to get this situation sorted. If you haven't already signed the petition [see below] please do so. Many thanks to all those who have.
20 August 2008. A lecturer who was forced to resign over remarked exam papers wins an unfair dismissal case. As reported in an article in the Times today [read full article here] a tribunal in Southampton unanimously found in favour of Dr Paul Buckland, an eminent professor of environmental archaeology, in his case against Bournemouth University for unfair dismissal in a ruling that sends a warning to universities against artificially inflating their results. Professor Paul Buckland and a board of external examiners failed 14 students on the Environmental Archaeology course at Bournemouth University in 2006 but officials, including the course leader, Dr Miles Russell, intervened when the students failed their re-sits to give them all pass marks. Dr Brian Astin, chair of the board of examiners and the dean of the school of conservation approved the change. The ruling reinforces comments made by Professor Geoffrey Alderman, former chair of the academic council at the University of London in June, that University league tables put lecturers under pressure to mark positively and have led to a dramatic increase in the number of first class degrees awarded. Professor Buckland could receive a financial payout or be reinstated. The UCU who supported his appeal said that the ruling sent a clear and important message to other universities that they cannot inflate grades to make themselves appear more attractive to undergraduates.
11 July 2008. Nottingham Trent UCU branch is derecognised. Support has flooded in to members at Nottingham Trent university after news broke that management were unilaterally imposing new and radically inferior collective bargaining arrangements on the union, effectively derecognising the branch. An online petition opened at lunchtime on Wednesday has already garnered a staggering 4000 signatures, while hundreds of messages of support have streamed in from all sectors of the union across the country and even from our sister union, the Canadian AUT. General Secretary Sally Hunt has said: "Nottingham Trent University
needs to understand that UCU does not take threats like this lightly. Union members have a right to expect to be properly protected at work and not messed around like this. The University can rest assured that it will feel the full force of the national union if it persists with trying to dictate the terms of the recognition agreement. The University's behaviour is insulting and its timing is cowardly, right at the end of the academic year. If the University hoped to sneak this through without a fuss, it is severely mistaken."
***WHAT YOU CAN DO***
If you have NOT already done so, please sign the petition now. This attack on members at Nottingham Trent is in reality an attack on all of us. We need to make this the biggest petition that UCU has ever launched to set down a marker that this form of management is totally unacceptable. PLEASE SIGN NOW
For more information, click here
16 June 2008. Greylisting of Keele University suspended. As a result of the concerted action taken by National UCU and local branch members, an interim settlement acceptable to the local UCU branch has now been reached at Keele University and consequently, the calls for greylisting of the university have been suspended. UCU and management have agreed the following: 1. A process will be put in place to determine the details of academic programmes within the proposed School; 2. The University will negotiate with UCU, terms for voluntary severance to offer to staff from the areas affected; 3. The offer of voluntary severance will remain open until 31 January 2009; 4. The University agrees not to deduct any pay in respect of the industrial action short of a strike; 5. UCU accepts that these measures are intended to minimise and avoid the need to consider compulsory redundancies. UCU reserves its right to oppose any compulsory redundancies. The Keele branch of UCU and the national union are clear that the interim settlement reached should enable the university to avoid compulsory redundancies. However, if the management does not conduct the negotiations in the spirit which has been agreed, greylisting and the action short of a strike can be reinstated.
13 June 2008. Newcastle UCU Branch Officer and Committee positions. At
the Annual General Meeting of the Newcastle UCU Branch that took place
today, the election of the following persons to positions as Officers,
Committee Members, and Congress Representatives for the Newcastle
Branch was confirmed:
Vincent Theobald - President; Bryan Vernon - Vice President
[Operations]; Alasdair Charles - Vice President [Strategy]; Gillian
Paczynski - Equality Officer; Geoff Abbott, Colin Brooks, John Hulme,
Paul Roberts - ordinary Committee Members; Geoff Abbott, Steve
Snowball, and Bryan Vernon - Congress Representatives. Geoff
Abbott will also continue to serve as Communications Officer until his
term of office expires in June 2009. The
meeting also
confirmed Jack Hale as Auditor and Joan Harvey as a second University
Safety Committee Representative [in addition to Paul Roberts]. For
full details of the election results, click here. For
more information on the Newcastle UCU Branch, including a full list of
Officers, Committee Members, Rules, etc, click here.
9 June 2008. UCU wins landmark fixed-term case. UCU has successfully won a landmark case against the University of Aberdeen concerning a researcher who had been employed on a succession of fixed-term contracts for nine years. A tribunal ruled that Dr Andrew Ball, a research fellow in the department of Zoology, must be recognised as a permanent employee. Sally Hunt said: "This is a very important victory for thousands of university and college staff on fixed-term contracts. Dr Ball had a just case and we will be using this victory to help take on other institutions who refuse to acknowledge the just call for full-time contracts from their staff." For further details of this case, click here.
9 June 2008. UCU wins landmark fixed-term case. UCU has successfully won a landmark case against the University of Aberdeen concerning a researcher who had been employed on a succession of fixed-term contracts for nine years. A tribunal ruled that Dr Andrew Ball, a research fellow in the department of Zoology, must be recognised as a permanent employee. Sally Hunt said: "This is a very important victory for thousands of university and college staff on fixed-term contracts. Dr Ball had a just case and we will be using this victory to help take on other institutions who refuse to acknowledge the just call for full-time contracts from their staff." For further details of this case, click here.
6 June 2008. Greylisting of Keele University. Friday
the 13th June could see the start of an international boycott of Keele
University. UCU has decided with great reluctance that
unless the university halts its attempts to make 38 academic
staff compulsorily redundant without meaningful negotiations, and
retracts its intention to deduct 25% of salaries per day from those
taking part in
the ongoing lawful industrial action against these redundancies, UCU
will ask members to grey list Keele University. Greylisting
specifically means a voluntary boycott of academic and other university
activities at Keele. For more details of the dispute, what
greylisting means, and what
you can/should do
click here.
31 May 2008. Latest
instalment of the 2006-2009 pay award. Staff at Newcastle
14 May 2008. Academic Board. At the meeting of Newcastle University Academic Board, the Vice Chancellor was asked the following question by Colin Brooks: "Is the VC aware that academic staff in the University have been surprised at the massive investment in new buildings [at least £200M] that is taking place just a couple of years after the University stated that it did not have the financial resources to meet the pay claims of academic staff whose salaries over the last 20 years have fallen substantially behind those of comparator professional groups? Could the VC provide a detailed breakdown of where the money is coming from for each of the new build projects that the University is currently committed to or is currently considering, and give an assurance that the University will not claim poverty in the forthcoming pay round?" For the answer he gave click here.
9 May 2008. Elections for Newcastle Branch Committee. The terms of office of many of the Officers and Committee members of the Newcastle UCU Branch are coming to an end shortly. It is vital for the continuation of the important work that the Branch does on behalf of members in Newcastle, and more broadly for the academic and related staff groups which it represents, that these positions are filled. In recent years, several positions have remained vacant on a long-term basis, so if you feel you could spare a few hours to help with the work of the Union, please offer your services!. But hurry - nomination papers must be delivered to the UCU Office by 12 noon on Wednesday 21 May. For more details, including how to obtain a nomination form, click here.
2 May 2008. INTO rattled by UCU opposition. Readers of the Times Higher Education will have seen that one of this week's features is a charm offensive by the chairman and owner of privatising company INTO, Andrew Colin. In his article, Mr Colin is at pains to explain how he is just trying to help universities to get a bigger share of the market in international students and accuses UCU of 'ideological' opposition to privatisation. INTO aim to secure deals with at least 11 universities. Helpfully, though, he also admits that pay is worse in his joint ventures and that INTO is currently making a substantial loss - just two of the reasons why UCU is opposed to such ventures and is campaigning to keep INTO out of Essex university, Glasgow Caledonian and now, Queen's University Belfast. Read more.
2 May 2008. Result of political fund ballot. Members voted in favour of retaining the union's political fund. 72.9% of those voting voted in favour of the resolution. The turnout in the ballot was 26.8%. As a reminder to members, the political fund is NOT used to support political parties, but to fund the UCU's essential lobbying of political organizations and individuals.
27 April 2008. Storm clouds gathering over pay. While the debate over the future of the national pay bargaining structures continues, prospects for next years' pay round do not promise any easy ride. Although employers are committed to the remaining instalments of the 2006 pay agreement of 3% in May and the higher of 2.5% or the RPI, and recently published accounts for the year ending July 2007 show the sector to be in a fairly healthy state, institutions are looking to talk down their financial prospects.
24 April 2008. FE Lecturers on strike. Members at 250 colleges took strike action today to send the employers a clear message that lecturers have had enough of below-inflation pay offers. Reports show that the action was well-observed by lecturers angry that Colleges find plenty of money for salaries at the top while refusing to bridge the gap between lecturers' pay and that of school teachers and other professionals. Read more.
23 April 2008. Medical School Restructuring. Proposals for the restructuring of the Schools and Institutes in the Faculty of Medical Sciences have been release. The aims of the restructuring are stated to be to reorganize the administration of teaching in the faculty, to make changes to the interconnected management of teaching and research, and to improve the ability to respond to the new NHS research strategy. UCU has been lead to believe that the restructuring will have only minor impact on academic and research staff, and that there will be no redundancies. However, if anyone hears anything to the contrary or is concerned, please contact us. A link to the full restructuring proposal document is provided here, and to a FAQ document here.
14 April 2008. FE Lecturers vote to strike on pay. College lecturers in England have voted to strike on Thursday 24 April in support of a demand to bring their pay up to that of schoolteachers. Read more.
14 May 2008. Academic Board. At the meeting of Newcastle University Academic Board, the Vice Chancellor was asked the following question by Colin Brooks: "Is the VC aware that academic staff in the University have been surprised at the massive investment in new buildings [at least £200M] that is taking place just a couple of years after the University stated that it did not have the financial resources to meet the pay claims of academic staff whose salaries over the last 20 years have fallen substantially behind those of comparator professional groups? Could the VC provide a detailed breakdown of where the money is coming from for each of the new build projects that the University is currently committed to or is currently considering, and give an assurance that the University will not claim poverty in the forthcoming pay round?" For the answer he gave click here.
9 May 2008. Elections for Newcastle Branch Committee. The terms of office of many of the Officers and Committee members of the Newcastle UCU Branch are coming to an end shortly. It is vital for the continuation of the important work that the Branch does on behalf of members in Newcastle, and more broadly for the academic and related staff groups which it represents, that these positions are filled. In recent years, several positions have remained vacant on a long-term basis, so if you feel you could spare a few hours to help with the work of the Union, please offer your services!. But hurry - nomination papers must be delivered to the UCU Office by 12 noon on Wednesday 21 May. For more details, including how to obtain a nomination form, click here.
2 May 2008. INTO rattled by UCU opposition. Readers of the Times Higher Education will have seen that one of this week's features is a charm offensive by the chairman and owner of privatising company INTO, Andrew Colin. In his article, Mr Colin is at pains to explain how he is just trying to help universities to get a bigger share of the market in international students and accuses UCU of 'ideological' opposition to privatisation. INTO aim to secure deals with at least 11 universities. Helpfully, though, he also admits that pay is worse in his joint ventures and that INTO is currently making a substantial loss - just two of the reasons why UCU is opposed to such ventures and is campaigning to keep INTO out of Essex university, Glasgow Caledonian and now, Queen's University Belfast. Read more.
2 May 2008. Result of political fund ballot. Members voted in favour of retaining the union's political fund. 72.9% of those voting voted in favour of the resolution. The turnout in the ballot was 26.8%. As a reminder to members, the political fund is NOT used to support political parties, but to fund the UCU's essential lobbying of political organizations and individuals.
27 April 2008. Storm clouds gathering over pay. While the debate over the future of the national pay bargaining structures continues, prospects for next years' pay round do not promise any easy ride. Although employers are committed to the remaining instalments of the 2006 pay agreement of 3% in May and the higher of 2.5% or the RPI, and recently published accounts for the year ending July 2007 show the sector to be in a fairly healthy state, institutions are looking to talk down their financial prospects.
24 April 2008. FE Lecturers on strike. Members at 250 colleges took strike action today to send the employers a clear message that lecturers have had enough of below-inflation pay offers. Reports show that the action was well-observed by lecturers angry that Colleges find plenty of money for salaries at the top while refusing to bridge the gap between lecturers' pay and that of school teachers and other professionals. Read more.
23 April 2008. Medical School Restructuring. Proposals for the restructuring of the Schools and Institutes in the Faculty of Medical Sciences have been release. The aims of the restructuring are stated to be to reorganize the administration of teaching in the faculty, to make changes to the interconnected management of teaching and research, and to improve the ability to respond to the new NHS research strategy. UCU has been lead to believe that the restructuring will have only minor impact on academic and research staff, and that there will be no redundancies. However, if anyone hears anything to the contrary or is concerned, please contact us. A link to the full restructuring proposal document is provided here, and to a FAQ document here.
14 April 2008. FE Lecturers vote to strike on pay. College lecturers in England have voted to strike on Thursday 24 April in support of a demand to bring their pay up to that of schoolteachers. Read more.