Email to staff from the Vice-Chancellor 21 November 2019

Dear colleagues

I am writing in advance of the industrial action that starts next week.

This will be a difficult time for the University. Members of staff who voted to take action will not have done so without careful thought. Others who voted against action may decide to support them. Others still will carry on with their work as usual. There will be different responses within and between departments.

Students too will have different responses. For some, voicing support for striking lecturers will be the top priority. For others it will be how to deal with the loss of scheduled teaching. Many will not be affected by the strike at all.

These differences of view and experience may be challenging for us, but should be met with respect. With that in mind I will keep in regular contact with our local UCU branch and with our two students’ unions to continue a constructive dialogue locally as the dispute unfolds nationally. That dialogue will certainly be about how to mitigate any disruption our students experience. But I am confident that we can also work locally to make progress on some of the employment concerns – e.g. on casual staffing and the gender pay gap – that have been raised nationally.

I hope we will also see constructive dialogue nationally. This will not be easy given that only a sub-set of the institutions balloted on both pay and conditions and on pensions saw mandates for industrial action. Institutions not facing industrial action have little incentive to engage in dialogue. I am concerned that these differences could undermine national bargaining processes. This situation will require creative responses from both employers and union.

I am also concerned that repeated industrial disputes may inadvertently nourish a view of higher education that encourage the commodification of the sector. In this view degrees are reduced to hourly financial transactions, and the links between teaching, research and broader student experience are eroded. I know that very few within our University will want to see this.

For all these reasons I will be urging all sides, employers and UCU, to be creative in opening up space for a resolution of the disputes we now face – perhaps around the second report of the Joint Expert Panel which is expected shortly – and hope that other colleagues in a position to do so within the University will do the same.

With best wishes

Charlie