University pay still not settled
Pay for university workers is still not settled. The five unions representing higher education workers submitted a claim in April, but there’s no agreement.
Universities
Universities
Universities: Action across the country
Members of the University and College Union are taking action across the country in defence of jobs and conditions.
Open door to study in Britain
24 November 2023
The number of overseas students coming to study in Britain has reached a record high. Universities and government welcome this, but it’s to the detriment of British students.
Critical period for UCU members
24 September 2023
Members of the Universities and Colleges Union face difficult choices in continuing their action on pay and conditions in the face of employer resistance.
Universities: Strikes to resume [print version]
The University and College Union (UCU) is to take more strike action before the end of September unless the employers agree to return to negotiations.
Students: Universities look abroad
The Russell Group of universities is now offering more places on courses to international students than to British students – and bringing in more income as a result.
University strikes resume
24 August 2023
University academic staff will resume strike action in their pay and conditions disputes before the end of September unless employers agree to return to negotiations.
University pay fight resumes
On 17 April University and College Union declared that university members have won a “historic victory” in achieving restoration of their pension.
Universities - UCU pay progress [print version]
Following significant progress in negotiations with university employers on pay, working conditions and pensions, the university staff’s union, the UCU, is suspending for two weeks the remaining seven days of its planned 18 days of strike action.
Universities: UCU pay and pensions progress
22 February 2023
University staff look to have made progress in their struggle on pay and conditions. This shows the power of a united workforce.
New wave of action set to hit university employers
22 January 2023
Next month will see 70,000 members of the University and College Union striking across Britain in 150 universities, beginning on Wednesday 1 February.
Unprecedented strike action sweeps universities
27 November 2022
Three days of strike action are hitting virtually every university in the country, with action on 24, 25 and 30 November in the biggest walkout that the University and College Union has ever taken.
University staff vote for UK-wide strike action in historic ballot
24 October 2022
The University and College Union has announced that over 70,000 university staff at 150 universities could strike after an overwhelming Yes vote for strike action in what it calls “two historic national ballots”.
'Reclaim our time' in uni fight
After three days of national strike action from 1-3 December members of UCU, the university workers union, have now moved to a “reclaim our time” campaign underpinned by a form of working to hours.
University workers on the picket lines in pensions fight
2 December 2021
Support is growing for the university staff action over pensions, pay and working conditions taking place at campuses across the country, with picket lines swelling.
Universities: ballots on pay and pensions
The University and College Union has begun balloting its members in universities over action on pensions and pay.
The value of academic freedom
Extreme anti-feminist activists at the University of Sussex have waged a campaign of harassment and threats against a distinguished analytic philosopher, Professor Kathleen Stock, demanding in posters and social media posts that the university sack her.
Uni fat cats purring again
After hollow gestures of solidarity with staff by offering pay cuts in a time of financial crisis, senior Scottish university administrators on obscene salaries have quietly returned to their old ways.
Thousands write to contest universities pensions valuation
2 February 2021
Universities staff have had enough of being forced to pay exorbitant pensions contributions solely because their scheme is making unrealistic assumptions about the future.
UCU under fire over 'nonsense' Covid-19 claim
9 September 2020
There has been a strong reaction to universities union UCU’s tweet of a non-peer-reviewed paper saying that without strong controls, students' return to campuses would cause at least 50,000 deaths.
A sustainable future for higher education
No wonder universities are in a financial mess. Wedded to a business model that relied on speculative investment to bring in increasing numbers of foreign students, they are going to have to re-focus on Britain to survive…
Looking forward
At the University of Glasgow the university and the union have reached a joint agreement about coping with the new situation.
The dark hand of the EU
The University and College Union (UCU) has rightly refused to agree to huge increases in the staff pensions contributions to the main universities pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
Putting profit above staff and students
While university staff are forced to take industrial action to protect their wages and conditions, universities are piling up surpluses – and paying big salaries to their top administrators. What’s going on?
Strong support in Glasgow for university pay and pensions fight
3 December 2019
Despite the rain, pickets were out in force yesterday for the Monday morning picket at the University of Glasgow.
University workers start strike action
25 November 2019
Classes at universities across Britain and Northern Ireland are being disrupted as staff begin an eight-day strike today. The action is due to last from 25 November until 4 December.
Pensions: thanks to the EU, it's not all over yet
Despite progress in the universities pensions fight, the employers still do not accept – and many staff still fail to understand – that there is no pensions deficit at all. It’s actually a destructive fabrication imposed by EU diktat…
Pensions: university bosses try it on again
7 September 2018
University managements are circulating a pension proposal to university workers for consultation based on fundamentally flawed assumptions about the economy and interest rates.
Truce in uni pensions fight
The long-running dispute over pensions conducted by members of the University and College Union (UCU) has been suspended after they voted by 64 per cent to 36 per cent to accept the employers’ latest proposals.
Truce in universities pensions fight
16 April 2018
The long-running dispute over pensions conducted by members of the University and College Union has been suspended after they voted decisively to accept the employers’ latest proposals.