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

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