Many of Britain’s universities are sliding deeper and deeper into debt. Yet, instead of looking for solid foundations, they are calling for yet more dependence on the volatile global market for international students…
In September, the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent announced a plan to create a new “trailblazing” multi-university.
All over Britain university workers are dealing with the consequences of the current funding crisis in the sector.
30 October 2025
New laws protect the freedom of speech at universities in England. This is necessary because too many bodies have actively promoted constraints on academic freedom.
26 June 2025
Bradford University staff are striking over job cuts. They have criticised the university’s response to a £16 million deficit, forcing through job losses.
20 May 2025
Members of the University and College Union continue to take action in defence of higher education in this country
23 April 2025
Many UK universities face ruin due to their reliance on the bloated fees of international students. Student numbers are dropping; it’s left to university staff to pick up the pieces.
25 February 2025
Despite having no power to alter UK immigration policy, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has called for a visa scheme to let foreign students work in Scotland after they graduate from a Scottish college or university.
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.
Members of the University and College Union are taking action across the country in defence of jobs and conditions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On 17 April University and College Union declared that university members have won a “historic victory” in achieving restoration of their pension.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
The University and College Union has begun balloting its members in universities over action on pensions and pay.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
At the University of Glasgow the university and the union have reached a joint agreement about coping with the new situation.
