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UCU Commons Blogs: 2021

summarized by Ben Pope It’s been just over a year since we published our first post, which marked the transition of our community from an informal discussion group to a fully fledged organising effort to bring about the change that we want to see within UCU and in post-16

UCU Commons Candidates for Equalities Standing Committees

A commitment to intersectional equalities work is central to UCU Commons, as set out in the first of our core values, where we state that we are for equality in all its forms. We are unequivocally committed to making our union and our workplaces trans-inclusive. We are anti-racist, anti-colonial, and

TL;DR: Why did 'the UCU leadership' decide [for a short ballot | disaggregation | bundled ballots | ballot timing | …]?

by Bijan Parsia Reading time: over 10 minutes (3,200 words) For a (much) shorter Twitter thread going over the timeline please see Rhiannon Lockley’s thread. She also voted differently than I did, for the most part. Please don’t debate their decisions over on their thread, but take

TL;DR: (Dis)Aggregation in UCU Balloting

This TL;DR explains some of the issues around aggregated vs. disaggregated UCU balloting.

Massaging the Figures on USS: How It's Done

Are you a vice chancellor concerned for your employees’ quality of life in retirement? Worried that your performance doesn’t match your pay packet? No, we thought not. But you may be anxious about the UCU ballots for industrial action, including the dispute over the proposed cuts to USS pensions.

UCU Commons Statement on the Labour Party, Transphobia, and LGBTQ+ Solidarity

Content warning: some transphobic language is quoted in this statement. UCU Commons writes today to stand in solidarity with all our trans, non-binary and gender diverse colleagues, comrades and students. We vehemently oppose all forms of transphobia and queerphobia, and we recognise that biphobia, homophobia, queerphobia and transphobia all amount

Why STEM Practitioners Need to Stand Up for Arts, Humanities and the Social Sciences

by Nicholas Chancellor A recent narrative which has proved popular with Tory politicians and their supporters (see for example: this announcement) is that students are being duped by 'low value' degrees in arts, humanities and social sciences. The idea is that these degree programs lead to hapless students

Gender Studies in the ‘Starbucks’ University

By: Ruth Holliday Author Note: Ruth Holliday is Professor of Gender and Culture at Leeds University, a Cultural Sociologist, and a UCU NEC representative for the North-East region. Despite the manufactured panic about ‘woke’ subjects like Critical Race Theory and ‘Critical Marxism’ as imagined threats to the free speech of

Creating Cracks for Collective Care in the Ruins of the University

Fostering collective care involves working together to create opportunities for rediscovering joy in what we do, as a priority need - without this joy, where do we find the necessary reserves to push for better higher education?