We are currently putting the final touches to a UCU counterproposal that will be submitted to University management as part of the phase one consultation on Friday 4 July.
As part of this process, we want to ensure that no key points are missed. If you have any important thoughts or suggestions regarding the proposed restructuring of any of the affected business units—particularly Research & Knowledge Exchange (RKE), Libraries, External Relations, CARO, Governance & Assurance, Estates & Facilities, Finance, HR, DTS, the Academic Registrars’ Office, or PPSC—we would very much welcome your input.
Please email this redundancy working group (rwguonucu@gmail.com) directly as soon as possible this week with any contributions or reflections you would like considered as part of the counterproposal.
Many thanks for your continued engagement and support.
Nick (branch secretary) on behalf of the branch committee
This Thursday, 26th June is the last safe posting date for our current ballot. Make sure you vote, vote YES, and tell your Departmental Rep when you have. Our opposition to the chaos created by management is only as strong as our mandate. Encourage members in your department to vote.
Read on for the following topics:
Open meetings on Future Nottingham and developing a counter proposal
The struggle for the language centre continues
Know your rights
Workload campaign update
Open meetings on Future Nottingham
UoN UCU at Trans Pride
Branch Committee meeting summary
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Local and national campaigning
Joining link and further information
Open meetings on Future Nottingham and developing a counter proposal
Thank you to the approximately 1,500 people who have attended one of our open meetings discussing Future Nottingham from a trade union perspective in the last month.
Most recently, open meetings took place in the Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences, Social Sciences, and Engineering. With earlier meetings held in Arts, Sciences, and two non-faculty events for all staff. Thanks also to our colleagues in Unison and Unite for making these a successful inter-union project.
The frustration of staff with Future Nottingham has been evident at these meetings; as has the solidarity and care for colleagues and students that so many staff make central to their working lives. Comments, questions and suggestions for possible elements of a counter-proposal were raised and discussed.
Following these meetings, the branch secretary Nick Clare has emailed members to ask for your thoughts on the University’s proposals for restructuring numerous business units. See email re:‘Finalising the Phase 1 counterproposal.’
Please email the redundancy working group (REDACTED) directly as soon as possible this week with any contributions or reflections you would like considered as part of UoN UCU’s counterproposal.
The struggle for the language centre continues
On Wednesday 18th June approximately 200 staff, students, and members of the community attended an enthusiastic and impassioned rally to say NO to the catastrophic cuts to the Language Centre. During the rally UCU members and Language Centre staff presented the open letter with over 1,100 signatories to University management. We will continue to fight against this unnecessary and shortsighted decision. Click here for ways to stand in solidarity with your colleagues.
Michaela Collord spoke to BBC on behalf of the branch and the anti-casualisation network, joined by staff at the Language Centre affected by these cuts. Listen here from 1:40.
Know your rights
We are aware that some members have been told that they ‘can’t complain about students’. We are lucky that the majority of our students are a delight to work with. However, there are rare times when unfortunately we may be on the receiving end of disrespectful, harassing and bullying behaviours from students. In these instances, please refer to the university’s Student conduct – The University of Nottingham, which allows for disrespectful behaviours to be challenged in a formal way. Additionally, on some courses this can be addressed through Fitness To Practice processes.
Workload campaign update
Two members of the Workload Campaign are now on the university’s JNCC (Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee) Workload and Work-Related Stress Task and Finish group, which has its first meeting on Monday 7th July. We are aiming to achieve the following within the Task and Finish Group:
An ongoing commitment to limiting workloads to a 100% maximum across the university
Establishing working groups within each Business Unit to monitor for potential ‘shrinkflation’ of workload within Workload Models, and ensure Workload Models are reviewed annually in transparent and co-created ways.
Ensuring that all Business Units have Workload Models (e.g. Engineering and other schools don’t currently have one) for EDI and equity purposes.
Ensuring that there are transparent workload adjustments for carers and disabled colleagues.
Ensuring all Business Units have completed Business Unit Stress Risk Assessments, together with their union reps, for transparency and equality purposes.
Ensuring the ongoing review and updating of all Business Unit Stress Risk Assessments for employer accountability.
We would love to get your feedback on the Organisational Stress Risk Assessment. Please read through the document (noting that we were NOT involved in its draft), and email REDACTED with any comments and suggestions of how it needs to be revised so that it fully reflects our experiences and needs. We will take your ideas and suggestions to the first meeting. Thanks so much for your input.
Your Branch Committee met on Wednesday 18th June and discussed:
An update on our current ballot and ‘get the vote out’ work,
The campaign to support casualised staff at the Language Centre,
Planning for Faculty Open Meetings Meetings on Future Nottingham in Engineering, Medicine and Health Sciences, and Social Sciences.
The branch’s ongoing affiliation to and support for Nottingham Citizens,
The dispute between UCU head office and staff represented by Unite (see open letter below).
The Branch Committee meets weekly. If you would like Committee to discuss a particular topic please email the details to: uonucubranch@gmail.com
During the ballot period the Departmental Reps are also meeting weekly to discuss progress and challenges in their areas.
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Our dispute is about workers at the University of Nottingham being threatened with redundancies, our Alternate Financial Strategy 2.0 lays out how decisions by management have led to this. We can also see the threat of redundancy is commonplace for many workers in Universities across the UK. Our strength here as a Union is in our collective solidarity within our branch and in extending it to other UCU branches and HE workers.
Please find details and petitions/letters to sign to support staff at UoN and across the country using the links below:
As the dispute continues, the branch committee has agreed to share with members and ask them to sign this open letter, which calls on UCU Trustees and elected members of the National Executive Committee to examine the handling of this dispute.
Call on Nottinghamshire County Council to divest from apartheid Nottingham Palestine Solidarity Campaign is leading a movement to demand Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) divests its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) from companies and organisations complicit in the genocide in Palestine. Currently the LGPS holds £170 million in shares in genocide-complicit companies. In line with the branch’s BDS motion and solidarity with Palestine motion the branch has given official support to the campaign.
We encourage all members resident in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County to sign the petition here.
A People’s History of the Farmers’ Movement in India, 2020-21 In 2020 a monumental uprising of India’s agrarian base unfolded in response to contentious farm laws. The Farmers’ Movement was a year-long protest that ended in December 2021 with the passage of the Farm Laws Repeal Bill by the Indian Parliament. The Movement is a testament to the power of collective resistance that offers a roadmap for future struggles.
In this talk, Professor Singh will discuss the Farmers’ Movement, looking at the socio-political dynamics, cultural nuances and wider solidarity that the protest generated across India and amongst the Indian diaspora.
This talk is supported by the Department of History’s ‘Rupture, Revolution, and Crisis’ theme and will take place tomorrow, Wednesday25th June, 2-3.30pm, Lenton Grove, A18.
60 Years of the Tricontinental Conference: Context, Impact, Legacy, and Future Parvathi Kumaraswami, an academic at the University is crowdfunding for travel grants for scholars, artists and activists from the Global South to attend the above January 2026 conference at the University of Havana. This will celebrate the original event and prioritize contributions from the Global South and stimulate important debates about the original event and its relevance to anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and decolonisation.
Report anti-trans discrimination Have you been questioned, stopped or challenged using a single-sex space? Fill in this form to help TransActual advocate on this issue at a national level.
Need to talk to your Departmental Rep? Find the full list of UoN UCU reps here. If you are interested in becoming a departmental rep, get in touch!
Struggling with your mental health or wellbeing? UCU members get free access to confidential support service educationsupport.org.uk who can be called 24/7 on 08000 562 561.
Yours sincerely,
L Scott Blankenship and Will Paterson-Bassett, Branch Communications Officers, on behalf of UoN UCU Branch Committee
As part of our fight to protect jobs at the University of Nottingham, we will be sending regular emails outlining various aspects of our campaign. Today, we focus on current discussions between UCU and UoN management over Future Nottingham. Remember, further details about our campaign can be found on our webpages, via the redundancy campaign tab.
Chaos reigns supreme
Over recent weeks and months, members of the UCU committee have been in regular meetings with management over Future Nottingham cuts and restructuring including high-level general meetings as well as more focused meetings on different Chapters of current APM restructuring and redundancies.
Management argues that it is committed to sharing information, which in turn would allow UCU to work on alternative proposals. In practice, however, information is often incomplete, incorrect or simply not provided. This reflects the generally chaotic situation with redundancies at the moment. Numerous colleagues are being told that they are at risk of redundancy, then they are told that they are safe, before being put yet again into another redundancy pool.
Despite insufficient information, the committee is working hard on developing an alternative proposal to management’s Future Nottingham. We are clear, we will not accept compulsory redundancies.
Several developments have become clear in our meetings with management. First, despite the current chaos around redundancy pools, management pushes on regardless with restructuring. This also includes first discussions and a timeline about future redundancies of academics and technicians in the Autumn. As we have always maintained, nobody is safe!
Second, the big elephant in the room is management’s future savings target. Their objective is to generate a surplus of 5 per cent, i.e. £40m in 2025/2026. Historically, however, UoN surplus was somewhere in the area between 3 and 4 per cent in normal years. Increasing this to 5 per cent already puts undue pressure on finances in times of general uncertainty. Moreover, does this indicate that management simply continues with its faulty financial strategy? As we argued in our Alternative Financial Strategy 2.0, imposing cuts on essential activities to generate large surpluses for infrastructure investment has resulted in regular financial crises in the past. When is management going to learn the lessons from past mistakes?
To be clear, the UCU committee will continue to resist restructuring and job cuts in our meetings with management. What has become, however, abundantly clear is that words alone will not be enough to make management see sense. Only sustained and hard-hitting industrial action will ultimately ensure a better future for staff, students and UoN as a whole. Make sure that you vote in the current ballot!
Make sure you vote, vote YES, and tell your Departmental Rep when you have. Our opposition to the chaos created by management is only as strong as our mandate. Encourage members in your department to vote.
Read on for the following topics:
Mobilise to protect Language Centre staff
Know your rights as a trade unionist
Future Nottingham meetings
Branch Committee meeting summary
Our struggles are connected
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Local and national campaigning
Joining link and further information
Mobilise to protect Language Centre staff
Our open letter in solidarity with Language Centre casualised staff has reached over 1000 signatures! Help increase pressure on management and stand up for these workers by attending the rallytomorrow, Wednesday 18th June at 1:30 pm in Trent Courtyard to show the University that we will not back down.
Go to the campaign page for more ways you can continue to support our colleagues in the Language Centre.
Know your rights as a trade unionist
In a climate of increasing job insecurity, redundancy and rising workloads across the sector, knowing your rights as a trade union member has never been more important.
You have the legal right to join a union and to participate in its activities including meetings, campaigns and industrial action – without fear of dismissal or detriment.
Your employer must not treat you unfairly for being active in your union, whether you’re a caseworker, rep or simply attending a branch meeting.
If you are facing disciplinary action or a grievance, you have the right to be accompanied by a union rep, not just HR.
Unions have the right to be consulted over redundancies, contract changes, and major restructures. This means UCU plays a key role in negotiating safer, fairer outcomes for all staff.
If you’re ever unsure whether a decision made by management is lawful, fair or discriminatory – speak to your Departmental Rep before signing or agreeing to anything. It’s your right to seek advice and representation.
Use your voice: a strong union presence depends on active members. Whether you’re new to the union or a long-time supporter, your engagement makes a difference – not just to you, but to your colleagues.
Know your rights. Use your rights. Stand together. Together we are stronger.
Future Nottingham meetings
The three campus unions hosted two open meetings last week, attended by almost 1000 staff members. Attendees expressed anxiety at the chaotic manner in which the University has rolled out these redundancies. We will continue to keep our members and the broader employee body as informed as possible via branch communications, further open meetings, our social media, and the Workers’ Eye Whatsapp channel.
The three campus unions will be holding further open meetings both for all staff and at the faculty and department level. Upcoming faculty level meetings:
Engineering: Thursday 19th June, 12:30 pm in X1, Chemistry and via Teams at this link
Social Sciences: Friday 20th June, 11:00 am via Zoom at this link
Branch Committee meeting summary
Your Branch Committee met on Wednesday 11th June and discussed
Our response to the University’s role evaluation and restructuring under Phase 1 of Future Nottingham
Methods and infrastructure for communicating effectively with members
The progress of the current industrial action ballot
The Branch Committee meets weekly. If you would like Committee to discuss a particular topic please email the details to: uonucubranch@gmail.com
During the ballot period the Departmental Reps are also meeting weekly to discuss progress and challenges in their areas.
Our struggles are connected
Trade unions, including UCU are committed not only to furthering the interests of their members, but the struggles of all oppressed people in the UK and across the world. To this end, this Saturday there are two demonstrations we encourage our members to attend:
Notts Trans Pride 11am starting at Broadway Cinema.
National march for Palestine, London. Coaches leave at 8:00 am from Forest Recreation Ground, tickets available here.
We also encourage our members to sign the petition demanding Nottingham County Council divests its pension fund from companies complicit in the genocide in Palestine
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Our dispute is about workers at the University of Nottingham being threatened with redundancies, our Alternate Financial Strategy 2.0 lays out how decisions by management have led to this. We can also see the threat of redundancy is commonplace for many workers in Universities across the UK. Our strength here as a Union is in our collective solidarity within our branch and in extending it to other UCU branches and HE workers.
Please find details and petitions/letters to sign to support staff at UoN and across the country using the links below:
A People’s History of the Farmers’ Movement in India, 2020-21 In 2020 a monumental uprising of India’s agrarian base unfolded in response to contentious farm laws. The Farmers’ Movement was a year-long protest that ended in December 2021 with the passage of the Farm Laws Repeal Bill by the Indian Parliament. The Movement is a testament to the power of collective resistance that offers a roadmap for future struggles.
In this talk, Professor Singh will discuss the Farmers’ Movement, looking at the socio-political dynamics, cultural nuances and wider solidarity that the protest generated across India and amongst the Indian diaspora.
This talk is supported by the Department of History’s ‘Rupture, Revolution, and Crisis’ theme and will take place on 25th June, 2-3.30pm, Lenton Grove, A18.
60 Years of the Tricontinental Conference: Context, Impact, Legacy, and Future Parvathi Kumaraswami, an academic at the University is crowdfunding for travel grants for scholars, artists and activists from the Global South to attend the above January 2026 conference at the University of Havana. This will celebrate the original event and prioritize contributions from the Global South and stimulate important debates about the original event and its relevance to anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and decolonisation.
Report anti-trans discrimination Have you been questioned, stopped or challenged using a single-sex space? Fill in this form to help Transactual advocate on this issue at a national level.
Need to talk to your Departmental Rep? Find the full list of UoN UCU reps here. If you are interested in becoming a departmental rep, get in touch!
Struggling with your mental health or wellbeing? UCU members get free access to confidential support service educationsupport.org.uk who can be called 24/7 on 08000 562 561.
Yours sincerely,
L Scott Blankenship and Will Paterson-Bassett, Branch Communications Officers, on behalf of UoN UCU Branch Committee
Welcome to your regular newsletter. Once your ballot is complete and in the post please let the branch know, by informing your Departmental Rep.
You can support your colleagues and strengthen our branch by joining the Redundancy or Workload working groups, as well as becoming a Departmental Rep or Caseworker – please email uonucubranch@gmail.com. Additionally, you can make a donation here to help bolster our strike fund. More broadly, you can write to your MP to ask them to intervene in the national higher education crisis.
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Local and national campaigning
Joining link and further information
Save the language centre!
Management has ignored the branch’s request for the basic dignity of direct employment and instead announced plans to let go all Language Centre casual workers, and end all their teaching. This is an incredibly damaging decision; it hurts the University (the Language Centre generates a surplus!), it hurts staff, it hurts students, and it hurts the wider Nottingham community, for whom there remain very few language learning opportunities.
Our open letter currently has over 600 signatures. Please sign here to apply further pressure. The campaign page lists more information and more ways to help.
Future Nottingham meetings
The three campus unions are hosting further open meetings to give updates on the state of Future Nottingham. These will include an update from the unions about Phase 1 and the potentials for phase 2 followed by a Q&A.
The meetings will be held online and are not faculty-specific. These will be useful whether or not you were able to attend the previous open meeting, and as previously are open to staff regardless of union membership.
In addition, there are a number of APM department-specific meetings for UCU members communicated by email by Andrew Armstrong on 4th June, subject line “Open All Staff Meeting and further APM Member Meetings“.
Arts Faculty meeting
In addition to the meetings above, we will be holding an all-staff meeting for the Arts Faculty, where questions and concerns more specifically regarding the Arts Faculty can be raised and discussed. The meeting will be hybrid:
Lisa Rüll as one of your Equality Officers attended the Abortion Rights Trade Union round table event held 3/6/25. UCU both supports bodily autonomy and is nationally affiliated to Abortion Rights. The round table discussed their ongoing campaign to decriminalise abortion and the upcoming amendments to the Crime and Policy Bill. These may help decriminalise abortion (still illegal under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, limitedly permitted by The Abortion Act 1967). Anyone interested in summary notes from the event, and details to support upcoming events are welcome to get in touch.
EHRC Consultation on Trans Rights
A number of your UoN branch committee are signed up to the Trade Unions 4 Trans Rights WhatsApp groups (including one specific to UCU members). This week TransActual released notes to guide submissions to the EHRC Consultation. As UCU has stood firmly in support of trans rights – reaffirmed at our recent UCU Congress – we welcome advice to shape responses from TransActual as “a national, trans led and run organisation focussed specifically on working for trans adults in the UK”.
UCU Congress 2025 report
Following on from last week’s update on the main outcomes of this year’s Congress and Higher Education Sector Conference, our delegates have now completed their report. Aside from a detailed record of what was discussed and commentary on the proposals that were most heavily debated, they offer their general reflections.
Branch Committee meeting summary
Your Branch Committee met on Wednesday 4th June and discussed:
Industrial action strategy
How we should approach consultation with management
The Committee also heard updates from the Palestine Solidarity Working Group.
The Branch Committee meets weekly. If you would like Committee to discuss a particular topic please email the details to: uonucubranch@gmail.com
Departmental Reps also met on Thursday 5th June focusing on the GTVO (get the vote out) efforts in our respective departments.
Protect University jobs here and across the country
Our dispute is about workers at the University of Nottingham being threatened with redundancies, our Alternate Financial Strategy 2.0 lays out how decisions by management have led to this. We can also see the threat of redundancy is commonplace for many workers in Universities across the UK. Our strength here as a Union is in our collective solidarity within our branch and in extending it to other UCU branches and HE workers.
Please find details and petitions/letters to sign to support staff at UoN and across the country using the links below:
Midlands march for Palestine Saturday 14th June Join Nottingham PSC, Stop the War coalition, local community groups, as well as this union branch and others to call for an immediate and permanent cease fire. Please join the Midlands March for Palestine in Nottingham on Saturday, 14th June starting at 1:30 pm from the Forest Recreation Ground.
Notts Trans Pride The second ever Notts Trans Pride will take place on Saturday 21st June at 11am, with the march starting from Broadway Cinema. With the current political climate (including a UKIP demo planned on the same day), it is essential that we have maximum visible Trade Union support for trans rights so please ensure you attend.
In addition, if you are interested in helping to contribute to the running of the event please sign up here.
Call on Nottinghamshire County Council to divest from apartheid Nottingham Palestine Solidarity Campaign is leading a movement to demand Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) divests its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) from companies and organisations complicit in the genocide in Palestine. Currently the LGPS holds £170 million in shares in genocide-complicit companies. In line with the branch’s BDS motion and solidarity with Palestine motion the branch has given official support to the campaign.
We encourage all members resident in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County to sign the petition here.
60 Years of the Tricontinental Conference: Context, Impact, Legacy, and Future Parvathi Kumaraswami, an academic at the University is crowdfunding for travel grants for scholars, artists and activists from the Global South to attend the above January 2026 conference at the University of Havana. This will celebrate the original event and prioritize contributions from the Global South and stimulate important debates about the original event and its relevance to anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and decolonisation.
Report anti-trans discrimination Have you been questioned, stopped or challenged using a single-sex space? Fill in this form to help Transactual advocate on this issue at a national level.
Need to talk to your Departmental Rep? Find the full list of UoN UCU reps here. If you are interested in becoming a departmental rep, get in touch!
Struggling with your mental health or wellbeing? UCU members get free access to confidential support service educationsupport.org.uk who can be called 24/7 on 08000 562 561.
Yours sincerely,
L Scott Blankenship and Will Paterson-Bassett, Branch Communications Officers, on behalf of UoN UCU Branch Committee
