News Archives - Page 13 of 17

SOS: Assembly 12/05 – Register now.

WARWICK ACADEMICS – ACT NOW!

Register for the assembly

SIGN UP FOR THE FORTHCOMING UNIVERSITY ASSEMBLY TO STOP THE DOWNGRADING OF YOUR TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT

Stuart Croft, VC for the University of Warwick, has called an assembly on Friday 12 May (10:30 to 11:30 in Oculus 1.05) over the reform of Warwick’s Employment Statute (Statute 24).

The changes to the Employment Statute being proposed by the Provost constitute a massive downgrading of the redundancy, disciplinary/dismissal, grievance and appeal procedures for staff on academic, teaching-only and research-only contracts. This is the most serious attack on academic freedom and job security since UK universities abolished tenure nearly 30 years ago.

The assembly will vote on a formal motion calling for the university to revise the employment statute, instead of gutting it; and for Council not to approve any changes until they have the support of the affected staff, UCU, Heads of Department and Senate.

The replacement Statute is much weaker than the current one because, amongst other things, it abolishes the Academic Redundancy Committee and the right to have appeals heard by an independent legal expert. Further information about the specific changes can be found at our dedicated website: http://warwickucu.org.uk/campaigns/statute-24/

The Law School and History department have already passed motions opposing the changes. Other departments are scheduling extraordinary staff meetings to discuss this one issue.

The campaign needs everyone’s support. We can’t let down the next generation of Warwick teachers and researchers. We can’t let the legal safeguards that have protected Warwick academics for nearly 30 years get abolished on our watch.

What can I do?

Register for the assembly asap;
Get academic colleagues to register for the assembly;
Get eligible staff to join UCU so they can take vote in the forthcoming ballot;
Direct people to the dedicated Warwick UCU Save Our Statute website. It has lots of information and an FAQ section rebutting everything in the official version.
Table a motion at your next departmental meeting requiring your Head of Department to write to the Provost outlining staff concerns. If your department doesn’t table motions, or your HoD is resistant, at least get it discussed; contact Warwick UCU President (Justine.mercer@warwick.ac.uk) for help with this;

Warwick UCU committee.

Save Warwick’s Employment Statute

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: http://bit.ly/statutepetition

Senate failed to stop the planned repeal of Warwick’s employment statute (Statute 24), so now we need to protest more loudly. You may have seen the Save Our Statute flyers and posters in UCU colours. More information can be found on the dedicated web pages http://warwickucu.org.uk/campaigns/statute-24/

SOS Poster / Leaflet (front) — Poster / Leaflet (front)

What can I do?

Talk to everyone in your department so they realise what’s at stake; use the flyers we delivered to staffrooms and pigeon-holes, as well as the UCU Briefing on Statute 24; You can print more or we can send some to you (click on the images above for PDFs you can download and print).
Get eligible staff to join UCU so they can vote in the forthcoming ballot;
Direct people to the dedicated Warwick UCU Save Our Statute website. It has lots of information and an FAQ section rebutting everything in the official version.
Table a motion at your next departmental meeting asking your Head of Department to write to the VC and Provost outlining staff concerns. Several departments have already done this and the passed motions are now being sent to University management.
Warwick UCU represents over 800 members of staff, so we shouldn’t have to act individually. But management aren’t listening, so feel free to provide feedback directly to emprelations@warwick.ac.uk.
Sign the forthcoming petition.

See the UCU site where this issue is being picked up nationally:

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8722/Staff-force-emergency-meeting-at-University-of-Warwick-in-jobs-row?list=1676

Warwick UCU committee.

National Day of Action against Workplace Racism

On Wednesday 8th February, UCU Warwick held an open meeting on workplace racism as part of UCU’s national day of action.

Nigel de Noronha, Sociology, led a discussion of the findings of UCU’s national survey of BME members https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/8090/Report-finds-high-levels-of-discrimination-in-colleges-and-universities

This was followed by a collective discussion about practical ways in which Warwick UCU can make anti-racism central to its work on campus and to call on the university for specific policies to be implemented.

#onedaywithoutus – Warwick University and Warwick UCU

Warwick UCU and the University of Warwick are supporting this national day of action to celebrate and highlight the contribution that people from across the world have made to the UK.

For information on events taking place, please visit the http://www.1daywithoutus.org website.

Whilst UCU cannot recommend withdrawal of labour, we encourage members to show their support by taking part in one of the local or national events.

The University is promoting the event at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/insite/news/intnews2/one_day_without_us and we are encouraging people to meet in the Piazza at 12:30 for an opportunity to support this event on social media as the national organisers of the event have suggested. As it is half term, you can even bring the kids and, after the event, take them on a sculpture tour to see the works by international artists, and visit the Mead Gallery to see the latest installation by Subodh Gupta.

Statute 24 Open Meeting

Have you ever questioned received wisdom?

Have you ever put forward a new idea?

Have you ever voiced an unpopular opinion?

Do you work alongside any colleague who has?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, the removal of Statute 24 affects you.

Come to the Statute 24 Open meeting

Wednesday 22 February

13:00 to 14:00 in Oculus 0.04

Paul Bridge, UCU’s National Head of HE, will speak.

Invite non-members to come. Anyone can take part in the debate.

Encourage non-members to join UCU ( https://join.ucu.org.uk/) so they can vote on the motion – details to follow.

University management are determined to remove virtually all of Statute 24 and make all staff subject to the same policies on redundancy, discipline, grievance and sickness absence. This will make it much easier and quicker to dismiss academic staff and, by extension, the professional, technical and support staff who work alongside them. UCU is strongly opposed to this kind of change, both nationally and locally.

Under the new system, Heads of Department will get fresh powers to make academic staff redundant and Faculty Chairs will be able to dismiss academics for saying anything that could damage the university’s reputation. There will be no external scrutiny and no independent appeal. This cannot be right. The checks and balances detailed in Statute 24 are essential to protect academic freedom not just in principle but in day-to-day practice.

If you genuinely want academic staff to question received wisdom and put forward controversial/unpopular opinions … don’t make Heads of Department responsible for academic redundancies and Faculty Chairs the arbiters of gross misconduct.

Statute 24 Open meeting

Wednesday 22 February

13:00 to 14:00 in OC 0.04

Newsletter – January 2017

Editorial message to members

Welcome to the first UCU newsletter of 2017. It won’t have escaped your notice that 2016 has been a year of great change and some surprises, on the world stage and also within the Higher Education sector.

Attack on Statute 24 and Ordinances 19-22 – aka “Review of University Governing Instruments”

Management are proposing to abolish all sixteen pages of Statute 24, except for the first paragraph, together with the four related Ordinances (19-22). Why does this matter?

The Prevent Duty and Universities

On 15 October 2016, some staff and students organized a hugely informative one-day conference on the Prevent Duty and universities, prompted by the growing racism and xenophobia that has been unleashed in the wake of June’s EU referendum outcome.

Gender pay and anti-casualisation claims

Following the decision to stop industrial action UCU head office have provided branches further guidance on lodging gender pay and anti-casualisation claims – in line with the strategy of exerting pressure at the institutional level.

NSS Boycott

As noted in the last newsletter, one of the policies adopted by the Students’ Union, both nationally and at Warwick, is the boycott of the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS is one of the quantitative metrics which will be used to generate TEF scores. UCU also has national policy opposing the TEF and recently issued a joint statement in support of the boycott.

Democratic Deficit within the University – opposition to TEF

Our recent newsletter gave an update on the fight against TEF. To recap, TEF is one element of the Higher Education and Research Bill, which, if passed, will have far reaching and deleterious effects on higher education through the imposition of a market-based consumer model of education. UCU has national policy opposing the HE bill and the implementation of TEF.

University of Warwick Green Ranking: Improvements but much more to be done

It’s welcome news indeed that Warwick has substantially improved its Green Ranking as issued by the organization People & Planet. The university has made a concerted effort at meeting auditing and reporting requirements since the previous survey, and its commitments regarding carbon management and reduction, as well as the highlighting of staff accountable for sustainability targets, are especially noteworthy

UCU newsletter Jan 2017

‘Why we cannot afford to lose Erasmus+’

Warwick academic Andrea G. Klaus has co-written a report on the value of the Erasmus programme – “Why we cannot afford to lose Erasmus+”. This is an essential read for anyone who works with European students who have gained from this programme.

“The Erasmus+ (formerly the Erasmus) programme supports student and staff mobility throughout the European academic community. Amongst many other things it provides students with the opportunity to study in another EU country for up to a year for free. It also funds students who opt for a work placement in industry or who choose to work as Language Assistants in schools. Not only do students studying Modern Languages Degrees participate in this scheme but it is also available to students from all other degree courses. (For more information see http://www.eua.be/Libraries/publications-homepage-list/afterthe-brexit-referendum-possible-outcomes-for-horizon-2020-and-erasmus.pdf?sfvrsn=4 )
Since its launch in 1987 over 200,000 students have studied and worked abroad, mainly in France, Spain and Germany. This represents approximately 0.5% of the UK student population.”

Read the full report.

Warwick UCU AGM

Warwick UCU will be holding its AGM on:

Date: Wednesday 1 March 2017

Time: 12:30 to 2:00pm

Venue: H0.60 Humanities

Provisional agenda items to include:

1) Reform/Removal of Statute 24

2) Stern Review of REF

3) The Higher Education and Research Bill

This is an important meeting, so please make a note in your diaries and we hope to see you there! Election information will follow in due course.

Warwick Historians Against Racism Blog – Bigotry seeks company in the UK

UCU Warwick would like to draw your attention to this excellent blog post by a group of Warwick academics in the History Department.

Bigotry seeks company in the UK

We historians at the University of Warwick are very concerned about the racism that is becoming increasingly commonplace over Britain, especially in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/warwick-historians/bigotry-seeks-company-in-uk