Universities

After first result, campaign against university clampdowns will step up

The University of Sheffield (UoS) has disciplined two students for demonstrating in support of the UCU strike earlier this year. Instead of suspensions or expulsions, which some university managers were pushing for, the students were fined hundreds of pounds each. This is an outrageous punishment, coming at the end of an aggressive and authoritarian campaign from top university managers, who clearly don’t have enough real work to get on with, like re-organising their precious UCEA conference. But pressure from students and trade-unionists had an effect. The milder-than-expected sentence shows...

Sheffield, Manchester, Brighton: students fight clampdowns

At the time of writing the statement organised by the Student Cost of Living Campaign calling on the University of Sheffield to drop ongoing investigations and proceedings, and end the use of private investigators against student protesters, has 350 signatures. The last Sheffield University Student Union Council passed a motion passed condemning the securitisation of campus, the university’s disproportionate response to activists, and the intimidating environment it created. We’re still waiting, however, for public statement from the Student Union, or from its officers, on the recently...

University workers strike over 100% deductions

The University and College Union is continuing its marking and assessment boycott in the ongoing pay and conditions dispute. Several branches, including SOAS University of London and Winchester, are now striking in protest at their management’s imposition of 100% pay deductions for participation in the boycott. Winchester has called six days, and SOAS ten, with probably more to come when other workers at the university (in Unison) strike on 12-16 June. Other striking branches include Dundee and Liverpool Hope. At Newcastle University members have agreed to request strike dates if deductions...

Universities seek to victimise student activists

The campaign has stepped up against the victimisation of student activists who have bravely stood against the ongoing assault on Higher Education organised by the Department for Education and carried out by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), aided by University managements. At Sheffield University students protested at a UCEA conference of university leaders which was taking place on a University and College Union (UCU) strike day and across a picket line. Instead, UCEA could have met with the UCU and agreed to the union’s “four fights” demands, important for the whole...

UCU: build the MAB!

The future of the UCU disputes will depend on members holding the line in the Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB), as dates for exam boards draw nearer. But, as UCU members who have taken part in MABs in the past will know, managements will use any number of tactics to try to undermine our dispute. So far, the most serious threat has been over pay deductions, the threat of 100% at some Unis, and 50% in many others. That is why it is critical that UCU stands fully behind its National Executive decision to extend the fund to all members facing any level of deduction. And the national union...

Students criticise deflection tactic

Against the ongoing campaign at Sheffield University over the securitisation of campus and policing of student organising, Andy Winter, the university Chief Operating Officer, responded that the private-investigator firm Intersol Global had also been paid to investigate cases of sexual misconduct. The UK-wide campaign Not on My Campus has replied with a statement condemning the use of “sexual misconduct as a way to deflect criticism” on “hiring external investigators to probe the political protests of students”. It condemns the university’s spending on investigations into student protests...

Telegraph gets it wrong

An open letter to the Telegraph , signed by over 40 academics, has condemned Oxford University Student Union for disinviting the Oxford Union debating society from the annual freshers’ fair. The letter claims the move had been motivated by the Oxford Union’s upcoming event with former academic Kathleen Stock, known for her denunciations of pro-trans-rights groups like Stonewall. This open letter gets a number of significant details wrong, largely as a result of a misleading article in the same newspaper a couple of days prior. Oxford SU did vote to disinvite the Oxford Union (a private...

UEA ballots over cuts

University of East Anglia (UEA) staff still wait to hear from the Executive Team the exact number of compulsory redundancies being sought in response to the projected financial deficit (perhaps £45mn in three years’ time) which bad decisions by that same team have brought about. Cuts When news of the deficit broke, the university’s vice-chancellor wished everyone luck and took early retirement. The new vice-chancellor wasted no time before asserting the need to cut staff. In his view, the university employs too many people and needs to “right-size”. In a previous role, he published material in...

Sheffield University comes under pressure

The open letter to Sheffield University, demanding that it drop its investigation of student protesters, has been signed by student groups in Sheffield such as Sheffield Labour Students and Sheffield Solidarity Group, as well as by the chair of Sheffield Hallam UCU, the secretary of Sheffield International College UCU, and Sheffield Trades Council president Bob Jeffery. The open letter was started by the Student Cost of Living campaign , a cross-campus network of students around the country. Other signatories include the NUS Vice President for Liberation and Equality, Nehaal Bajwa, branch...

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