Fighting university redundances

Many UK universities are facing ruin due to their reliance on the bloated fees of international students. Student numbers are dropping and it’s being left to university staff to pick up the pieces.

UCU members at Brunel University continue their strike action. They were on strike for four days in early April and will be on strike later in the month. The dispute arose over management’s original plans to make 135 academic staff redundant.

Vandalism

The University of Dundee aims to sack over 700 workers. Mary Senior, Scotland official UCU, said, that it’s “tantamount to academic and economic vandalism. This level of job cuts would be catastrophic for the city of Dundee and the surrounding area.” Dundee UCU members have been on strike for three weeks.

University of Sheffield UCU members have voted to strike in a dispute over drastic restructuring plans that put up to 1,000 jobs at risk. On a turnout of 57 per cent, 74 per cent backed strike action.

Durham University UCU members have voted to strike over plans by management to cut £20 million from the university’s staffing budget. On a turnout of 64 per cent, 72 per cent of the members backed strike action, 81 per cent backed action short of a strike.

Nationwide

UCU members in higher education are also continuing to defend jobs and education nationwide – at Edinburgh, Canterbury Christ Church University, Bangor, Bedfordshire, Bournemouth, Bradford, Kingston, the University of East Anglia, Newcastle and Sheffield Hallam.

These actions all give weight to the UCU’s Stop the Cuts: Fund Higher Education NOW! campaign to address the crisis in higher education.