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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?

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read): Student Number Controls

The following post is a short summary of the debate over 'Student Number Controls' in Higher Education. Readers can find a longer appendix of articles linked at the bottom of the piece. It is the first in a series of 'TL;DR' short explainers that UCU

#ebooksos: Fighting the Enclosure of the Knowledge Commons

by Ben Purvis The oligopoly of academic publishers is widely recognised as a growing barrier to an open access knowledge commons in the digital age. The discourse typically focuses on academic journals, whose lucrative business model relies on the free labour of editors, reviewers, and authors, with the resultant product

Precarity, Mastery, and Vulnerability: Some Thoughts on UCU’s Recent Elections

by Tilly Fitzmaurice Two weeks ago, UCU members learned of the National Executive Committee election results. The six-week campaign period saw some acrimonious exchanges in the online sphere as the different groups within the union fought out their disagreements on multiple terrains. As the dust settles, a few reflections. For