Thank you again for coming to the meeting, showing your enormous strength, perseverance and dogged support to change FN2 and the trajectory this management is taking our beloved university to. The debate on each item was excellent. The message was loud and clear. We will write later again on the key points agreed on .
There was one point that is time sensitive, thus I have been asked to write on this today. A clear majority was in favour to support a boycott of graduations starting tomorrow. Hence, we herewith asks all members not to attend any graduations, labelled by management as celebrations. Considering job cuts and course closures, proposed by our management, there is nothing to celebrate at this point in time!
Two other key points, the Vote of No Confidence in Council, members asked for an important amendment to it, which was done and final approval of the amended Vote of No Confidence in Council, we will resend the latest version. What was brilliant was that members voted (>90%) on strategic strike actions next term. We will of course hold a meeting, nearer to next term, to discuss days etc.
Look out for an email from us next week, on the outcomes of our consultations. Two this week and a final one next week! Do keep an eye out on all the media publicity and interest from National newspapers. Links will be in our newsletter. They directly resulted from all your actions and external reach.
Email sent to members on Tuesday 21st July 2026. Zoom link removed and attachment included as embedded link.
Dear members,
Just a quick email to remind you of our member meeting at 2pm today (link below) and to provide you with a bit of an agenda. As we have quite a lot to cover, and a number of items that need voting on, we are going to be stricter than usual with timekeeping and really ask people to: keep contributions concise, consider if they have already spoken and thus let others speak, and make it clear if they are speaking for/against so we can balance contributions.
In solidarity,
Nick (on behalf of the branch committee)
Agenda
2pm – Welcome and dispute update
2.10 – Vote of no confidence (discussion and vote – document attached)
2.25 – Sustained strike action in the Autumn Semester (discussion and vote)
2.45 – Other forms of action: future marking boycotts, ASOS etc (discussion and vote)
Email sent to members on Thursday 1th July 2026. Zoom link removed and attachment linked in text.
Dear Members,
We are inviting you to an important branch meeting on Tuesday 21st July from 2.00pm-3.00pm to discuss the next phase of our campaign to defend jobs, protect education, and hold the University to account:
1. Next steps in our industrial action
Following the University’s continued refusal to commit to no compulsory redundancies, its determination to press ahead with unnecessary course closures, with so many implied job losses and expertise, and its failure to rethink the devastating Future Nottingham Phase 2 (FN2) proposals, we need to decide how we escalate our campaign. We do have an extra Consultation Meeting with UEB on 28th July, where our Counter Proposal will be discussed, and the below actions will help this.
We want members’ views on a range of potential actions, including:
Sustained strike action during the Autumn Semester, including Welcome Week
Sustained strike action during the Autumn Semester, excluding Welcome Week
A re-sit Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB)
An Autumn Semester Master’s dissertation MAB
Action at Open Days
Action at Graduation events
Please come along and help shape our strategy. These decisions are important ones for you to make.
2. Tri-Union Vote of No Confidence in University Council
The three recognised campus unions – UCU, UNISON and Unite – are jointly asking members to support a Vote of No Confidence in the University Council.
The attached motion sets out why the unions believe Council has fundamentally failed in its governance responsibilities in approving the Future Nottingham Phase 2 business case.
In particular, the motion argues that Council:
approved the draft business case without the evidence needed to assess the impact on teaching, research and student experience;
failed to give proper weight to the clear concerns expressed by Senate, the University’s principal academic body;
did not require the reports and information that its own governing documents say it should receive before making such a significant decision;
Appointed a new Chair of Council who has business connections with PA Consulting, who senior leaders are working with to shape FN2 plans and
exposed the University to unnecessary reputational and financial risk
The motion concludes that the unions can no longer have confidence that Council is fulfilling its statutory governance responsibilities and calls for those who supported the FN2 business case to resign.
A copy of the full motion is attached for members to read before the meeting.
Your voice matters
We are entering a crucial period for our branch and for the future of the University. The decisions we make now will shape our campaign in the months ahead.
We strongly encourage every member to attend, take part in the discussion and vote on these important issues.
Email sent to members on Thursday 9th July 2026. Zoom link removed.
Dear all,
Please remember today’s members’ meeting at 2pm. The committee will provide feedback from recent meetings with management, we will discuss the next steps in the current MAB as well as reflect on potential future industrial actions in the ongoing dispute.
Email sent to members on Friday 3rd July. Zoom links removed.
Dear members,
Sorry for the slight delay in this email, it has been a very busy day. We wanted to give you a clear update on the state of play of the dispute, pay deductions, and your responses to the two offers from management. This is a lengthy email but it’s important!
Update on weekend/non-working day strike pay deductions
Many of you flagged to us on your payslip that you had noticed extra deductions and that these correlated to weekend/non-working day deductions. We have been in regular contact with HR and payroll this week to explore this, and, having just come out of a meeting I can confirm that this is the new University line due to our strike day deductions being counted at 1/365. While of course fundamentally disputing the idea of weekend/non-working day deductions, we also pointed out that this was a significant, material change that was at no point communicated to staff. We are working with HR and payroll to explore a solution to these recent, non-communicated deductions and will update you as soon as we can.
Member vote on the second offer
The response to the indicative vote was fantastic. In under 24 hours 391 of you voted with your opinion, and the result was clear: 86.7% of you (339) said No, the offer isn’t sufficient to take to a member meeting, while 13.3% of you (52) said Yes.
Following the close of the vote, at 1pm our regional officer sent those results to management reiterating that the current offer falls well short of something that members would consider. She said that we were particularly disappointed that there had only been movement in one area to do with the potential of a MARS (Mutually Agreed Recognition Scheme). Reiterating member frustration that there was nothing more on pay deductions, enhancement of voluntary redundancy (VR) for those here more than 11 years, nor course closures – let alone ruling out compulsory redundancy! We had hoped to hear back from management with an improved offer, but as yet nothing.
We also wanted to thank the many of you who left comments, we have read every single one. Almost all were shocked by the offer, and of these many were so profane that we probably can’t share them here, although the wordcloud below gives you a sense of what people thought.
But there were two main themes that emerged from the comments that we wanted to quickly respond to here, but we will also make sure we set aside proper time to discuss.
Why MARS?
Quite a few comments were supportive of the idea of including a MARS, but others weren’t sure of the value. There are a couple of reasons why it could be worth considering.
First, we have received quite a few enquiries from staff who haven’t been pooled who want to leave due to Future Nottingham and the state of the institution. As it stands were they to leave they would do so without any pay, and a MARS scheme would mean that those who want to leave could do so in an enhanced way. This would also, as a consequence, reduce the likelihood of compulsory redundancy (CR) and also provide more options for staff in pools and at risk to move to different bits of the University and keep their job. One of our absolute priorities in this dispute is to prevent CR, so this seems like it could be something worth considering.
We have long argued that the way management has gone about this restructure is cruel and unnecessary and that a MARS scheme would have been fairer. We would rather the MARS was opened up more widely so that anyone who wants to go can do so with financial support, but in this offer management suggested keeping it even more tightly bound as they want to maintain their vision for Future Nottingham. How a potential MARS is run is therefore a point of negotiation.
It is clear that the addition of MARS alone is not enough, but lots of the comments suggested that MARS and more enhancement on the 11+ years of service could perhaps be something to consider as long as we had movement on the other requests as well.
What options do we have beyond the marking boycott?
A few comments were around what happens if we get beyond a point where the marking boycott is disruptive. For some, this was a reason to consider accepting the offer, but for most who raised this question they were asking: what options do we have for escalation?
This is an important topic, as a commitment to no CR was a red line that many of you said we need to keep to, and to achieve this we might need further action. In terms of things that can be done, plenty of these were suggested in the comments and included: actions at open days, actions at graduation, REF and impact boycotts, further marking boycott action in the August resit period, industrial action in the new academic year, and much more besides.
We now have a 12 month mandate for action when previously it was just 6 months. This means there is a lot more scope for new action and escalation and we can target future pinch points in the academic calendar.
What next?
Given these are important topics, we are inviting you to a member meeting at 2pm on Thursday 9th July. Department reps may also be organising local meetings to discuss these options ahead of this meeting.
But for the time being we need to hold the line, especially those in areas with accredited marks. Next week will involve many rescheduled exam boards and we strongly encourage members to attend and register their questions about marking irregularities and the contingency regulations. We also know that in many post graduate programmes the MAB continues to be disruptive and support members to continue, and expand, such impactful action.
Of course if in the meantime there are any more offers from management we will let you know, but do please keep speaking to each other and your reps, and you are always welcome to get in touch with the committee. We are led by you, and this is your dispute.
