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A collection of 143 issues

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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

Reissued: Candidate statement on transgender inclusion and academic freedom

Forward from Mark Pendleton, on why we are inviting representatives to sign this statement once again: “LGBT+ inclusion has been at the heart of our union's politics for many years. We have also often led the trade union movement, being willing to defend LGBT+ members' rights to

UCU Commoners: What We've Been Doing

Members of UCU Commons come from diverse backgrounds and vastly differing levels of experience within UCU. Some of us have been active within UCU for many years, others since the USS Strikes in 2018, and yet more within in the last year or two. Our varying levels of experience within

Precarity, Risk, and Hypocrisy in the Modern University

by Ben Pope The institutional solidity which we associate with the ideal university is produced only through successful management of the enormous risks involved in the creation of knowledge. Yet the modern university has abdicated its responsibility for managing these risks, and prefers instead to offload them on to the