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