UCU Commons newsletter #30, 4 November 2026
Dear subscriber
Welcome to the UCU Commons newsletter, a curated set of links and information about what's happening in UCU Commons, our union, and our sectors more generally. As always, we welcome any feedback you may have on this or any other matter.
In today's issue:
What UCU Commons has been doing
University of Nottingham staff and students came together on Tuesday 27th October for a spooky Halloween picket and funeral for the loss of staff and courses (even whole academic subjects) from UoN. Our own Lisa Rüll (here as one of three witches) said: "Our rally noisily confirmed we're still fighting, even as we march to mourn the staff and opportunities already lost and departing via various redundancy schemes. We will stand up to Compulsory Redundancies and increased staff-student ratios that are a curse upon education. As part of slashing 48 courses, it's RIP for all Modern Languages and Music degrees. My own former doctoral department American & Canadian Studies is in its final year of teaching-out. Courses frozen or cut for child nursing, mental health nursing, agriculture, education, physics, chemistry, biological sciences and more. Our students get it – this is a horror show created by senior executives who won't engage, who are too busy listening to PA Consulting”.
On Friday 23rd October, Tilly Fitzmaurice chaired the year’s first meeting of the Equality Committee, the subcommittee that advises the NEC on equality-related issues. Tilly says, “This was a highly productive meeting, with final planning for the upcoming Equality Groups conference (26–28 November, in Newcastle/online), as well as energetic discussion of the new Equality Strategy which, having been approved at Congress, makes the union’s impressive equalities work the engine of workplace organising against cuts, redundancies and the far-right. The committee secretary’s report was highly comprehensive and well received by the members. Finally, I should add that this was the first Equality Committee meeting since the tragic death of Professor Jason Arday in August. It was especially good to hear from the chairs of the Black and Disabled Members’ Standing Committees about the important work they have done since the hounding of Arday began”.
News from UCU
A Westminster Hall debate on higher education funding took place on Wednesday 28 October and can be viewed in full (text version). There were contributions from many UK MPs including Rupa Huq and Hannah Spencer. Use these tools to write to your mayor or your Member of Parliament, and keep the pressure up!
The Education: It's Ours campaign website has been updated with more resources for reps and activists. Michael Bartlett says, “There are slick graphics for branch websites and social media, a solidarity map that helps find local branches in dispute, and activist toolkits to help reps build membership and power in their branches. There's a lot of organising knowledge in our union, but it's spread out, lives in people's heads or is buried on dated websites, and I've often wondered whether I was doing the right thing or if we were ‘missing a trick’ in the branch. The new resources put much of that knowledge in one place, and are above all practical, with checklists and step-by-step plans, so there's really no excuse not to be organising and recruiting new members now. Every rep and activist should be able to get something out of these – take a look and share widely”.
UCU General Secretary Jo Grady has condemned the Home Secretary’s unfair, xenophobic and economically illiterate anti-immigration reforms. “UCU has migrant members from all over the world. They are friends and colleagues who support students and keep our education system running. Many are already working excessive hours in a sector facing a serious workload crisis. It is insulting to suggest they must do even more to prove they deserve to stay”. We could not agree more.
In our sectors
A research group at the University of Warwick has released a report on the wellbeing of researchers and research professionals. Ben Pope, NEC representative of casually employed members in HE, says, “The report’s wellbeing survey paints a depressingly familiar picture of high stress levels (compared to general population benchmarks) closely linked to precarious employment. Importantly, the report finds that ‘research professionals’ are equally if not more impacted in comparison to researchers. The report also strongly emphasises the importance of structural, system-level solutions and makes recommendations for institutions, funders, professional bodies and government. It should be read alongside UCU’s Research Staff Manifesto and 2023 report on universities’ support for research staff”.
A recent Conversation piece discusses the troubles faced by working-class academics in our universities. Matt Barnard says, “I enjoyed this thoughtful article and in particular the discussion of how working class people can be expected and pressured to adapt to the norms of the dominant social class of HE. In particular, I remember one wine and cheese dinner party where I tried to engage with the host in small talk about what I took to be an exotic cheese. It was in fact cheddar from Waitrose. This was a tense moment at the time, but I question whether authenticity is the correct lens to use here. Especially if it is understood as an unchanging inner truth of a person that should be allowed to flourish, rather than masked. People grow and change and social class is not an inelastic property. For myself, this has led me into a kind of twin homelessness, neither truly working nor academic/middle class, a nuanced condition that can’t be solved by being facilitated to ‘be myself’”.
In a damning indictment of working conditions in the UK HE sector, Ulster University has received 735 applications for voluntary redundancy since opening the scheme: nearly 300 more than the target of 450. Rob Clarke says, “Two years ago, Ulster University’s VC, who pocketed a salary of £277k in 2025, boasted that his institution was “a research-led, people centric, community-focused and values driven institution”. This grand claim, it seems, isn’t reflected in the experiences of staff on the ground, who have clearly been let down by their ‘leaders’. My thoughts go out to this assuredly talented, hard-working, and dedicated crew, many of whom feel they have little choice but to flee a sinking ship, while the rats not only remain aboard, but continue to gorge themselves at the Captain’s Table”.
We hope you have enjoyed this round up. Want to get involved? Join UCU Commons and work with us towards a more effective union for post-16 education here.
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