The #wearetheuniversity campaign is kicking off:

Our demands are straightforward, reasonable and achievable. We are calling for:

• a pay uplift that is at least RPI + 3.5% or £2,500, whichever is the higher, on all pay points
• joint action to protect national agreements relating to terms and conditions of employment
• a national agreement to avoid redundancies, course closures, and cuts to academic disciplines across the sector.

(for more info, see here.)

At Bournemouth Uni, we’re dealing with a wholesale restructuring of the university, and a re-thinking of the university’s vision by its new management team, that’s being carried out on a comparatively rapid timescale. We’ve been dealing with job insecurity and course closures; a number of us have the constant sense that we aren’t being listened to, and our input or indeed presence as lecturers and staff on the ground, who actually have to carry out and live with the decisions being led by or management, is not valued.

The seeming adoption of the ‘move-fast-and-break-things’ approach to university infrastructure, which often demonstrates a lack of care for lecturers, students, research, and the communities in which the university is embedded, appears to be a recurring scene across the sector at the moment; we want to extend our solidarity to our comrades and colleagues in other institutions, and we want to take the opportunity to make our care and solidarity visible.

We have a message addressed to Bournemouth UCU from Dr Jo Grady, General Secretary of the UCU–please take a moment to take a look!