Month: May 2026

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We are left with no alternative but to take action!

Email sent to members Monday 18th May 2026. Zoom link removed.

As part of our campaign to defend jobs and working conditions at the University of Nottingham, we will be sending regular emails, authored by different UCU members, examining key elements of management’s restructuring plans. Today we outline why taking action is the only possible option left for us. Feel free to share this post with non-UCU members in your area.

We are left with no alternative but to take action!

No member of staff enjoys endangering the graduations of their students. No member of staff likes losing significant amounts of pay. Industrial action is always a matter of last resort. When we take part in industrial action, then because management leaves us with no alternative. Confronted with more than 700 job cuts (609 FTE), we have to act! 

We have explored every potential avenue to avoid getting to this moment. From the very beginning of Future Nottingham (FN), we engaged constructively with management’s plans. In July 2025, UCU presented its Alternatives to Redundancies at the University of Nottingham proposal, including an updated Alternative Financial Strategy 2.1. We demonstrated that management’s FN Phase 1 job cuts were not necessary. This was followed by UCU’s Counter-Proposal to the University’s Course Suspension Plan in December 2025. Management refused to engage seriously throughout this time.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

UCU representatives attended countless meetings with management about different aspects of FN. Our discussions about the disastrous increase in staff-student ratios to between 1:18 to 1:22, for example, were underpinned by a detailed SSR report, indicating the dangers to UoN’s international reputation and league table positions. And yet, management declined to adjust their restructuring plans. The draft Business Case of May 2026 is only marginally different from the Strategic Case for Change of November 2025.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

All three campus trade unions Unison, Unite and UCU passed Votes of No Confidence in the VC, Chair of Council and the University Executive Board. None of them took this as a signal to reconsider their positions and approach.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

Senate, officially in charge of holding UoN management to account on education matters, voted twice against the FN restructuring plans by a clear majority. The VC and her senior management colleagues simply disregarded these votes.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

We attempted to influence the Council of the University, the body in charge of approving FN plans. We sent our Future Nottingham Phase 2: report and recommendations, and when management refused to forward it to members of Council, we approached these members directly. Staff representatives on Council fought valiantly trying to demonstrate to Council the risks involved in management’s strategy. Nevertheless, under the leadership of the Chair of Council Sir Keith O’Nions, in charge of Council throughout the university’s period of steady decline (see Sir Keith O’Nions – Engendering Decline!), and despite loud protests outside the meeting hall, Council waived through management’s plans without in-depth scrutiny.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

We approached the various MPs of Nottinghamshire and local councillors, who raised our concerns with UoN management. Nevertheless, here too the Vice Chancellor did not change course.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

We engaged the wider public through media reports and petitions. Countless people, horrified by the savage cuts to Modern Languages, Music, American and Canadian Studies as well as mental health nursing courses amongst others, signed petitions and appealed directly to UoN management, alas to no avail.

Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

In short, we have left no stone unturned, but management has consistently refused to shift. Hence, we are left with no alternative but to take action!

Please remember today’s members’ meeting at 1 p.m. to discuss the Marking and Assessment Boycott as well as strike action.

                    On behalf of the UCU Branch Committee

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Solidarity and next steps

Email sent to members on Monday 11th May 2026. Zoom/Teams links removed.

Dear UCU members, 

You will have heard by now about the drastic job cuts planned by our management. As the VC stated at the online and in-person staff meetings, ‘at risk of redundancy’ letters will be sent out tomorrow to more than 2500 staff members (🤬). Thank you for the killer questions you asked at the VC meetings today and for the spontaneous clapping from the audience after each one of them.

Re: The letters. Do not despair. You are not alone. It is our collective strength which will see us through this crisis. We know that these cuts are not necessary, see the UCU counterproposal. The specific counterproposals, challenging the updated business case, shown to BC last Friday, are being prepared for the June deadline. We, exec, will continue to go to all the extra JNCC meetings on this. Our fabulous Reps are fully involved in discussions and always there for us. And of course,  it is now the time to move towards our industrial action and make sure that compulsory redundancies become the most difficult option. There are always alternatives and our collective action in the forthcoming Marking and Assessment Boycott will change the course of management’s restructuring plans. Talk to colleagues in your areas, plan jointly for industrial action and let’s stay the course together.

In particular we have organised an all-staff, cross-union meeting tomorrow (12th May) at 12.30-1.30. This is a wider chance for all staff to share how they are feeling in the wake of today’s news. After that, we have also organised a UCU-specific meeting at 1pm on the 18th of May to discuss the Marking and Assessment Boycott and strike action.

Solidarity,

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Financial support and donations during the MAB

Email sent to members on Monday 11th May 2026.

Dear members

Please bookmark this email. It contains the following important information for future reference: 

  1. Details on the financial support available  from both the national and local fighting funds for taking part in industrial action, including the marking and assessment boycott (MAB)
  2. Details on how to donate to our solidarity fund for those who are unable to take part in the MAB

Financial support during the MAB

The employer is expected to deliver pay deductions for members taking part in industrial action.  However, we will be able to offer financial support to help lessen the impact of this. 

In the event of partial pay deductions for taking part in the MAB, members will be able to access the local solidarity fund. In the event of 100% pay deductions, they will be able to access both the local fund and the national UCU fighting fund.

National UCU fighting fund:  When pay is deducted in full, whether as part of a MAB or through strike action, members can apply to the national UCU fighting fund for support. They can apply for support after two waiting days ie from the third day of action onwards. They can then apply for up to a maximum of 8 days at £75/day (<£30k salary) or £50/day (>£30k salary).  The national fund cannot be used in the event of partial pay deductions. 

Details on how to apply to national fighting fund can be found here. 

Members should apply to the national fund first before looking to access the local solidarity fund.

Local solidarity fund: In addition to national support, the branch will also be able to support members taking part in the forthcoming MAB.  Thanks to previous donations from members and other branches,  we have recently been able to build up healthy financial reserves in our solidarity fund.    To this end, for as long as funds are available, we will offer:

  • Up to £500 to cover the first two months of the MAB. 
  • If the MAB is cut short before that time, we will offer £20/day up to a maximum of £500. 

Members do not need to request the full amount. In fact, in order to ensure that funds remain available to those in greatest financial need, we encourage members to consider asking for less if they feel able to do so.

We hope to be able to increase this offer provided we receive enough support from further donations (see below)

Details on how to apply to local solidarity fund will be shared in due course. Note that you will have to provide evidence of relevant salary deductions on your pay slip, in order to apply for this support in both cases. 

Members with acute financial needs can apply to the branch for an immediate loan ahead of the decision – please email the branch (uonucubranch@gmail.com) and mark your email ‘loan request’. 

Supporting other members taking part in the MAB

All members able to impact assessments should take part in the MAB. However, if you are not involved in assessments, we ask that you donate to the local solidarity fund to help support those who are taking part and share the burden of financial responsibility. 

We recommend a donation of at least a quarter of your take home salary for each day of the MAB.  Members who wish to donate more are, of course, welcome to do so! Here are the details to donate to the local solidarity fund by bank transfer:

UCU Nottingham LA63 Hardship Fund

Account number: 20346359

Sort code: 60-83-01

Ref: MAB 2026

In the event the management does not go through with pay deductions for those taking part in a MAB, we will offer to return all donations back to the donor.

If you have any questions about this, please contact me directly. 

In solidarity

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Memories of a local MAB!

Email sent to members on Monday 11th May 2026

As part of our campaign to defend jobs and working conditions at the University of Nottingham, we will be sending regular emails, authored by different UCU members, examining key elements of management’s restructuring plans. Today we look back at our victory in the local Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) in 2022. Feel free to share this post with non-UCU members in your area.

Memories of a local MAB

It was spring half term. As usual, we were in Cornwall, at the Valley Caravan Park in Polzeath. We go there every year. If you haven’t been you should. It’s a surfers’ paradise.

On this occasion I left my young family playing on the beach and headed back to the caravan. I had a crunch meeting with management. We were a few weeks into a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) and management was desperate to draw it to a close.

Representing UCU was me, Lopa and the legendary Agnes. Lopa played good cop, I played bad. Agnes was just Agnes. She never stood for any crap but at the same time, she had an uncanny ability to win over management. We miss her.

Representing the other side was the then registrar, the CFO and the head of HR. All of them have since left – some under a cloud following the fiasco that was the purchase of castle meadow campus.

This was the MAB of 2022. A local affair where everyone in the call had agency. As representatives of the local UCU branch, we had the power to return to our members and call off the action. As the representatives of university management, the trio on the other side had the power to deliver on our demands.

This changed everything. Although one member of the managerial team entered the meeting all bullish and macho, dismissing our requests as impossible, he was soon sidelined by the other two, more serious operators.  They were ready to deal. They saw that the MAB was causing chaos – that the students were up in arms – and they knew they could do something about it. They could talk to UCU – to me, Lopa, and Agnes – and see what they could do to bring it to an end.

We had the upper hand right from the start. We had the power given to us by you, the members who were taking action.  In the end, it was no surprise that we secured a resounding victory. Management agreed to a package of measures across the board: full transparency on gender and ethnicity pay gaps alongside a jointly developed action plan to reduce them; steps to tackle casualisation, including restricting the use of temp agencies and rolling out the Graduate Teaching Assistant model; a pay uplift for colleagues at the top of grades 4–6; agreed principles on pensions to ensure that any future improvements would benefit members rather than reduce employer contributions; and joint work to bring workloads down to manageable levels through more realistic modelling and  proper review of staff–student ratios. Most, if not all, of these measures have held up over the last four years.

When we finally put this deal to members, I was on a day trip to Padstow, sharing details about the pension deal with members via zoom from the harbour, surrounded by day trippers eating cream teas or fish and chips. My kids waited patiently with nets in the water, hoping to catch a crab. The members voted overwhelmingly for the deal we had secured. UCU Nottingham had won.

This was all possible because it was a parochial affair, just as it is now.  The coming MAB will hurt management and they will know that they are responsible for stopping it. They won’t be able to hide behind national negotiators. This is their problem – no one else’s. And if they want to fix it, they know what they need to do.

Commit to no compulsory redundancies.

Protect staff.

Protect the future of the university

            On behalf of the UoN UCU branch committee

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Statement in support of TUFF mobilisation 16th May

The Branch Committee of University of Nottingham UCU is extremely disturbed and concerned at the far-right rally called in central London on 16th May by Tommy Robinson, even more so as  the last rally of this type attracted between 100,000 and 150,000. Far-right mobilisation has increased across the United Kingdom over the past two years, including in Nottingham. Recently a coalition of grass-roots organisations managed to force the far-right out of Nottingham city centre on Sunday 26th April. However, the far-right are mobilising in Market Square under the banner of Flagmen of Derby, this Sunday 10th May from 11am.

We note that a group of rank-and-file trade unionists organised under the banner of Trade Unions Fighting the Far Right network (TUFF), have called for a mobilisation against Tommy Robinson on the 16th of May. We believe that the far-right cannot be allowed to march through London, or any city unopposed. 

Therefore, we back the TUFF call for a trade union counter presence to Tommy Robinson, and encourage members to attend, and we hope to send members of our branch committee. If members do plan to attend, please contact the branch so that we can coordinate.