Support the climate strikes!
Tomorrow striking university workers will be joining the next youth strike for climate. What can the movements learn from each other?
UCU strikes: a fighting start
Eight days of strikes got off to a confident start across sixty Higher Education institutions today.
Big changes at UCU congress 2019
UCU Congress 2019 saw a left rank and file General Secretary elected, the right and the bureaucracy in retreat and determination to pursue the USS pensions dispute.
‘Courageous conversations’: students occupy SOAS library
This week students at SOAS occupied the library in opposition to cuts. Seth Uzman points to the wider education struggles they are part of.
What exactly does a university Vice Chancellor do?
As HE workers prepare for action over pay, Mike Haynes asks: what do VCs actually do?
2018 in protest photos
Photographer Steve Eason looks back over the movements on the streets in 2018, from the anniversary of the Grenfell fire to the Extinction Rebellion bridge occupation
Notes From Below: Workers’ Inquiries #HM2018
Ian Allinson reports from Historical Materialism conference on the Notes From Below project
Leaders, leaders, leaders and leaders
Unite the Union activist Ian Allinson discusses the different connotations of the word ‘leader’.
Three days that shook the UCU leadership
Rank-and-file university workers are pushing UCU’s leadership in a bid for democracy, accountability and a fighting union
The death of irony at UCU congress
At the heart of the fight is the question of who controls the union: the officials or the membership?
University picket lines – a place of learning
Footage from Goldsmiths college picket line where staff and students talk about their experience of striking so far.
Update: what’s new in the UCU strike?
We look at the latest developments in the wave of strikes that has taken employers by surprise across the higher education system.
UCU strike: dispatches from the picket line
Striking academic workers and their student supporters report on the ongoing nationwide action in defence of pensions.
“We have to fight this”: interview with a striking lecturer
The strike action beginning next Thursday will be one of the largest ever in UK Higher Education.
Interview: The Fight for Fair Pay in Universities
‘Fractionals’ are hourly paid part-time teaching staff in universities who are paid a ‘fraction’ of a full-time salary. An increasing proportion of academics are on these precarious contracts. On 8 May, SOAS Fractionals for Fair Play (FFFP) announced via their Facebook page that, after threatening a mass marking boycott in late March, management had accepted all of […]
Unison and UCU strike together in FE over fair pay
Jessica Redman, a Unison member at a college in London, reports from Wednesday’s FE strike Wednesday 24 February saw Unison and UCU members in Further Education colleges across England strike together over pay for the first time in a decade. The strike was over an ongoing dispute with the Association of Colleges (AoC). The FE Joint […]
“£1 extra an hour for all” – UNISON and UCU national FE Strike
Tomorrow (24 February), for the first time in over a decade, UNISON and UCU in Further Education will be striking together for more pay. Mark, an FE lecturer in London discusses why they are taking action. Why we are striking Lecturers, admin and support staff working in Further Education colleges in England are to take […]
Lecturers to strike over pay and in defence of access to education
Mark Harding, a lecturer and UCU member in London, looks at the uncertain future of the further education sector and the Tuesday 10 November strike in colleges in England. Lecturers working in further education colleges in England are to strike on Tuesday 10 November for their UCU union’s demand of £1 an hour extra pay […]
SOAS is shut down in protest at union rep’s suspension, cuts and marketisation
Nilüfer Erdem and Will Searby report from SOAS where students and workers have shut down the campus in central London in response to management suspending Unison rep Sandy Nicoll and £6.5million of cuts. Valerie Amos, former advisor to Tony Blair and current interim director at SOAS, has accused students and staff of bullying and intimidating […]
London FE colleges hit by six strikes
UCU members in Further Education report on strikes that took place across London yesterday Seven London Further Education colleges took coordinated strike action yesterday against course closures and massive job cuts. Members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) have been campaigning since the election in May against draconian cuts to college budgets, most notably […]
“FE means Free Education Further Education For Everyone”
Mark Winter reports 1200 lecturers and students marched on Saturday 25th against the 24% cut in adult education, on a national demonstration called by the UCU (University and Colleges Union). The cuts are massive – UCU estimates that they could lead to a loss of more than 400,000 places for adult students in 2015/16 alone. […]
Students protest against LeSoCo cuts – photo report
Colin Revolting and Ian Crosson report 200 jobs are at risk at Lewisham and Southwark College. Yesterday lunchtime around 50 students from the college took part with others in a protest against these cuts. Shakira Martin, who is SU President in the college has just been elected Vice President for Further Eduction at the NUS […]
Lively LeSoCo lobby against FE cuts
Ian Crosson reports: Last Tuesday (24 March) there was a lively lobby of the governing body of Lewisham and Southwark College outside the Lewisham Way site. The lobby was called to protest against a £7m cut to the staff budget, which is largely the result of the massive national funding cuts to adult education. […]
Action against the 24% cut in Adult funding
Mark Winter, a lecturer at Tower Hamlets college, reports 200 lecturers and students marched on Downing Street on Wednesday (25 March) as part of a protest organised by UCU against a 24% cut to funding for adult education. As a result of the cuts 400,000 places will be lost, and these cuts could be a deathblow to […]
Tory cuts hitting FE hard
Mark Keating, a lecturer in a London college, discusses the cuts that are hitting the further education sector hard The Tories delivered another body blow to the further education (FE) sector when they announced swingeing 24% cuts to the Adult Education budget at the end of February. This kind of cut would have been greeted […]
Playing the Odds: How fractionals at SOAS organised and won
Today the SOAS Fractionals for Fair Play campaign announced that 95% (on a 63% turnout) had voted to reject a contract offer which fell well short of their demands. They also announced a 25% increase in the fractional population taking out a full UCU membership in July. The UCU branch is now committed to considering industrial action […]
Save Our Staff – or we’ll strike!
Shanice McBean reports from Kings College picket lines: Today UCU members at KCL were out on strike following the threat of 120 redundancies in the Health Schools. Fifty seven of these staff have now lost their jobs. Staff under threat are being targeted using arbitrary criteria, such as research grant income, to determine who gets […]
Bullying in the workplace
Barbara Jeffery, UCU Branch Secretary Tower Hamlets College (pc) discusses how to tackle bullying in the workplace. First published in the Summer 2014 edition of the rs21 magazine. Research suggests that since the onset of austerity there has been a significant rise in bullying and harassment in the workplace. Studies show a definite link between […]
UNISON join in as Lambeth College strike enters ninth day
Chants of ‘The Workers United Will Never Be Defeated’ , ‘El pueblo unido jamás será vencido ‘ rang out today from the Lambeth College Mass Strike meeting today. Neil R reports. Wednesday, the ninth day of the Lambeth College Strike, began with an even livelier and larger picket line at Clapham Common. UNISON came out on strike today joining the UCU […]
Lambeth College strike goes into its fourth day – report from the picket lines
Workers at Lambeth College voted last month for an indefinite strike to defend themselves against a principal who seems hell-bent on wrecking Further Education in the Borough.