Tag: members emails

Email sent to members on Tuesday 28th July 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 discuss in ‘Animal Farm’ style current graduation-celebrations. Feel free to share this post with non-UCU members in your area.

After the Graduation Celebration

The banners had been folded away. The speeches were over. The Farm had once again declared itself stronger than ever.

The animals returned to work.

The Boxers were thanked for their decades of loyal service. Each received a certificate praising their resilience, dedication and invaluable contribution. Shortly afterwards, they were informed that changing circumstances regrettably meant their experience was no longer required. They were wished every success elsewhere. The pigs assured everyone this was, of course, an investment in the Farm’s future.

The Snowballs fared differently.

There was no public punishment. That would have looked untidy. Instead, they simply ceased to appear where decisions were made. Their names slipped quietly from committees. Their suggestions became impractical. Their concerns became negativity. Their insistence that two and two still made four was judged insufficiently aligned with the Farm’s strategic direction.

When the younger animals asked who had first warned that the granaries were empty, they were told that nobody of consequence had done so.

When they asked who had questioned the figures, they were informed that malicious rumours had briefly circulated, but responsible leadership had prevented confusion.

When they asked why the old horses looked so tired, the pigs explained that change was always difficult for those who struggled to embrace opportunity.

The remaining animals learned quickly.

Working harder had not saved Boxer.

Being right had not saved Snowball.

The lesson was obvious.

Keep your head down.

Repeat the slogans.

And if anyone asks who predicted all this, look puzzled and say you cannot quite remember.

Email sent to members on Monday 20th July 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 discuss targeting Open Days as a potential form of action to put pressure on management. Feel free to share this post with non-UCU members in your area.

Targeting Open Days?

To date, we have excluded targeting Open Days as a potential form of action even though we know from the past that it is a potentially powerful tool to put pressure on management. As many colleagues have pointed out, by highlighting negative aspects about our university at Open Days, we are likely to scare off future students, who may decide to go elsewhere. The financial situation of Nottingham University would deteriorate further, putting pressure on the institution to make yet more redundancies.

Nevertheless, is it ethically correct to recruit students to our university, when we know how much damage Future Nottingham does to teaching here? Management intends to teach the same number of students if not more with seven hundred fewer staff. Seminar sizes will increase drastically, pastoral and academic support for students will deteriorate. The streamlining of programmes and courses implies less choice, the intended closure of Modern Languages and the Language Centre will prevent students from combining their degrees with the learning of a language. Do we not have a moral duty to point out to applicants that they will have better opportunities elsewhere than at our university?

We have always been clear that our industrial action is not only about defending our jobs and working conditions. We are also defending students’ learning conditions. If management continues to steamroller its destructive restructuring, do we not have to think again about targeting Open Days?

                On behalf of the Branch Committee