Local News
Dec 15, 2009 - Newsletter - Winter 2009 Edition Now Available
The winter edition (PDF) of the local Newsletter is now available.
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Nov 20, 2009 - General Meetings - Next General Meeting is 24 Nov 2009
The next general meeting will be held on Nov 24, 2009 at 1:00pm in 2N2.4.16 (SSRC Building).
The final agenda is now available.
The meeting will take place on Nov 24, 2009 at 1:00pm in 2N2.4.16 (SSRC Building).
Full details (updated as required) are available from the general meeting page.
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May 29, 2009 - National Congress - 2009 Results
Essex members will be please to note that the motion for annualy Congress, passed at our Mar 10 general meeting was passed with amendments and is now national policy.
The motion passed reads
Congress notes the growing public anger over executive pay in both the private and public sectors, and also notes the restraint being applied in the USA and the UK by government. Congress believes it is now time for the HE and FE sectors in the UK to follow suit.
Congress calls on HE and FE institutions to adopt good governance principles and transparency and to publish details of senior staff remuneration when they are agreed. It also calls on HE and FE institutions to restrain the pay increases made in 2009-2012 to vice-chancellors, principals and other senior staff in HE and FE institutions such that they will not be permitted to take pay rises greater in percentage terms than the lowest increases paid to staff on negotiated pay scales.
Congress is also concerned that the number of senior academic staff in FE and HE institutions is increasing with proportionately less front line teaching staff and instructs UCU officers to carry out an analysis of this and report to the NEC so that a campaign can be developed."
Full details of Congress proceedings can be found at UCU Congress 2009 on the national web site.
Jan 2, 2009 - Organisation - First-ever administrator starts today
A Big Welcome for Lorraine Collins, the local association's first-ever administrator and office-manager, who starts work today. She'll be working Tuedays and Thursdays, and will be based in Room 5B.528 in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, and can be contacted by phone on x4967 or by email at .
Selected National News => Get all the news from the National Web Site
Dec 3, 2009 - Funding - Academic community fights back in row over research restrictions
The academic community gave its clearest signal yet today that it was fighting back against plans which would 'wreck the very basis of innovation in knowledge', according to UCU.
Over 13,500 academics have signed a petition from the union against proposals from the research funding quango that would force 25% of future research to be assessed on 'economic impacts.' The proposals, announced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in September, have been condemned by the academic community as an attack on curiosity-driven research
See Academic community fights back in row over research restrictions on the national web site for more information.
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Dec 3, 2009 - Cumbria - UOutrage at vice-chancellor's 'disgraceful' method of announcing 200 job losses
The UCU at the University of Cumbria said that it was absolutely outrageous that vice-chancellor, Peter McCaffrey, broke the news of 200 jobs going to students before informing the staff. In the run up to Christmas, many staff found out their job was at risk through the media.
The UCU said McCaffrey, who was speaking to students from the Ambleside campus, had showed a disgraceful disregard for his staff. The students, after hearing what he had to say, took to the streets in protest and were joined by MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron. Staff at the crisis-hit institution warned this afternoon that more protests were likely and that they could not rule out strike action.
Outrage at vice-chancellor's 'disgraceful' method of announcing 200 job losses at University of Cumbria on the national web site has the full story.
Dec 2, 2009 - Sussex - Strike action on the cards
UCU today warned the University of Sussex that it could face strike action if it pressed ahead with controversial plans to axe more than 100 jobs.
At an emergency meeting yesterday local UCU members voted unanimously to give the local branch a mandate to ballot for industrial action if the threat of compulsory redundancies is not lifted through negotiation. They also passed a motion of no confidence in vice-chancellor Michael Farthing's proposals.
The response from the academic community to Farthing's plans to axe 115 jobs has been swift and demonstrates a united opposition to the cuts from the people who will be hit the hardest. The news about possible industrial action comes just five days after students and staff held lively protests against the job losses (on Friday).
See Strike action on the cards at University of Sussex in row over job cuts for the full story.
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Nov 30, 2009 - Glyndwr - Lecturers to protest
Members of UCU at Glyndwr University will stage demonstrations outside the university on Wednesday 2 December in protest at the dismissal of the union branch chair Hamish Murphy.
Demonstrations will take place at 8.30 – 9.00am and 12.30 – 13.30pm outside the gates of the Plas Coch campus (Mold Road, Wrexham LL11 2AW).
It will be the first stage of a programme of industrial action by lecturers at the university in support of the reinstatement of Hamish Murphy. The demonstration follows a previously overwhelming vote by UCU members in favour of strike action and action short of a strike
See Lecturers to protest at Glyndwr University for the details.
