Unions

Union passes 50 per cent threshold in aggregated ballot for first time since trade union laws introduced in 2016

It is not enough to argue that higher education’s primary relationship with the students is not labour-related, say Jeffrey Stankunas and Emily Dilloway

NTEU council rejects outright condemnation and resists push for expulsions

Staff down tools as pay and university funding alike drift well behind inflation

Union’s survey finds majority feels social class determines career progression in higher education

Union members begin walkouts at 16 universities amid calls for higher wage rises due to cost-of-living crisis

Enrolments down and activism up, as staff brace for job losses and management prepares for shutdowns

Ballot result comes days before UCU plans to poll its members on whether to take action over below inflation pay rises

Jo Grady confident the union will ‘far surpass’ the necessary turnout of 50 per cent to secure a mandate for further industrial action

But representative body says conclusions from analysis of university financial accounts are based on flawed assumptions

Union estimates UK sector made £3.4 billion in 2020-21 financial year and calls for funds to be invested in staff

Dramatic change in context could help union secure mandate for broader action but scale of challenge remains daunting

Head of university employers’ body talks upcoming industrial action, cost-of-living crisis and future of collective bargaining

Universities face tough decisions as staff argue for wage rises to keep up with cost of living and budgets become increasingly stretched

Unison joins UCU in balloting on industrial action over below-inflation pay rises

In-depth look at scheme’s finances confirms deficit has shrunk since last valuation but ‘volatile market’ means benefits cannot be improved, yet.

Clash over officials’ salaries occurs against a backdrop of resentment over union leadership’s pandemic tactics

Further strikes now more likely as formal dispute process ends without resolution

Liberation issues and bread-and-butter issues do not sit on opposite ends of an imaginary relevance spectrum, say Ben Vulliamy and Pierrick Roger

As well as supporting societies, tackling loneliness and offering advice, unions have no problem amplifying the student voice, says Ben Ward

The doctorate must remain an apprenticeship. Better to cut PhD students’ teaching load by hiring more teaching staff, says Ruth Machen

Consultation opens into the terms, scope and structure of the review, which aims to identify ‘meaningful and implementable’ changes

Switch to aggregated voting means staff at 149 UK universities could walk out if union gets majority turnout and support

Universities urged to rule out taking advantage of planned redrawing of UK legislation

UCU survey finds those in early career or insecure roles working the longest hours

Local union branches secure major wins in long-running disputes but others left with nothing

Lawyers say congress motion urging action against gender critical feminists could have breached Equality Act

UK’s national student union left out in the cold over antisemitism allegations

Members asked to back motion opposing ‘gender critics’ and ‘transphobes’

UCU pushes on with shrinking rounds of strike action despite calls to regroup and rethink

Focus on organisational hygiene and you get a nice place to work. Quality and high performance may or may not follow, says Grahame Dowling

University had been last public institution in UK not to formally recognise main sector union

Universities minister says government may suspend engagement with National Union of Students in light of recent allegations

Demonstrators push back against ‘exploitation’ of those struggling at the bottom of a sector seen as increasingly casualised

Unions accuse employers of intentionally stalling talks as industrial action over last pay award continues

After a decade of growing together, top US faculty association set to organise inside second-biggest teacher union

Swinburne says former councillor and union rep was not targeted, but he says redundancy criteria were written for him

Scholars asked to refuse to speak or help with examinations at university where 46 jobs remain at risk

Gender critical theory and harassment move up agenda as major battles over pay and pensions loom

New contracts at Harvard and NYU seen reflecting new determination and political and economic pressures of Biden and Covid

Unhappiness over guidance on rearranging classes affected by industrial action may force a rethink

Staff at 58 universities set to walk out

University and College Union general secretary says sector leaders who focused on turnout were ‘not listening to a consistent message that staff have been delivering to them’

Experts say exhaustion and worry over disruption to students hit appetite for industrial action but shouldn’t mask the unhappiness across sector

Inequality, Covid exhaustion, sympathy for students, fear of public opinion and frustration with UCU tactics are all factors, says Glen O’Hara

Combined with results of pensions ballot, union has mandate for walkouts at less than four in 10 institutions polled

Union urges education secretary to intervene on student loan changes and to press university bosses into talking on disputes

Australian inquiry also recommends new national strategy, top-up funding and better union entry rights

UCU leader Jo Grady claims action is needed as ‘staff at breaking point’ but employers say latest 1.5 per cent pay offer is ‘fair and meaningful’

Demands pushed by pandemic fears, labour shortages, awakened student athletes and Biden encouragement

Final two staff members facing axe allowed to leave on more generous terms following long-running industrial action and international boycott

Union members at 152 UK institutions asked to walk out for fourth time in little over three years

Valentina Azarova declines to take human rights position, but CAUT suspends censure and claims academic freedom win

UCU warns that unauthorised reuse of lecturers’ materials across multiple academic years could lead to strike action

Staff at troubled and historic institution ‘relieved’ by last-minute reprieve, and hopeful that institution’s traditions will live on

Union members overwhelmingly back action even as number of compulsory redundancies slashed to two

Takeover will preserve ‘rich heritage’ of trade union college, say leaders

University council backs shuttering despite widespread opposition

Paid time off for gender affirmation among the latest categories of special purpose leave demanded of universities

North-west institution is second university to be ‘greylisted’ by UCU in three months