Next wave of strike 10 June

6 June 2016

Members at the University of Winchester will lead the next wave of strikes as they walk out in a row over pay on Friday 10 June to coincide with an open day for potential students and their parents.

University of Winchester to kick off nationwide wave of strikes in escalating pay row

Next steps in pay dispute

2 June 2016

UCU HE sector conference has agreed the next steps in its dispute. University open days and graduation ceremonies will face disruption over the summer as individual union branches take strike action to coincide with the events. The action includes:

• disruption targeted at open days and graduation days in the summer
• an assessment boycott to start in the autumn; and
• external examiners continue to resign their positions on exam boards.

UCU confirms next steps in university pay dispute

External examiners resign over unfair pay

27 May 2016

More than 1,000 academics have already resigned from their roles as external examiners in universities across the UK, with thousands more expected to join them in coming weeks, the GuardianOpens new window has reported.

In an escalation of our industrial action over pay, 50 professors have signed a letter to the paperOpens new window voicing their opposition to what they see as the ‘unfairness of the current pay policies of our universities and their impact on staff and their students.’

Urging others to follow their lead, they conclude that ‘We love our work as external examiners not least because it brings us into contact with academics from around the country. The high-quality work we see confirms to us that staff deserve better from institution heads.

‘We have therefore resigned from our external examiner posts and will not be taking up new posts in order to demonstrate that there will be no “business as usual” until we have a commitment from our universities to fair pay in higher education.’

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt also wrote to members this morning thanking them for the strong show of strike action on 25 & 26 May.

More information for external examiners is available here.