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News Archives

Workers not widgets

Published: 14th June, 2018

A3 posters, A4 posters and A5 fliers all coming soon…

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We are the foundations

Published: 14th June, 2018

A3 posters, A4 posters and A5 fliers all coming soon…

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Letter to VC Paul Boyle re University of Leicester decline

Published: 14th June, 2018

Dear Paul, You will no doubt have seen the recent Guardian league table, in which the University of Leicester fell 20 places. While Leicester UCU is not in favour of league tables, we still see it as more evidence that the university is going in the wrong direction. The growing managerialism is undermining the social…

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Redundancies & shameful treatment of fixed-term contract staff – email to all members 5 June 2018

Published: 7th June, 2018

Dear Leicester UCU member, As we are sure you are aware, and was made clear at Paul Boyle’s all staff talk last week, the University is about to embark on yet another round of redundancies in order to reduce our University’s “staff cost to income ratio”. Our own analysis of the University finances is available…

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#OurUCU

Published: 4th June, 2018

The following collective text was agreed by somewhere between 100 and 150 delegates (and a few observers) who remained after the attempt by the chair to close down UCU Congress. It is worth stressing that this was a diverse collection of union colleagues without any shared factional affiliation. The two Leicester UCU delegates’ report is…

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Do you remember striking? We want your memories!

Published: 3rd June, 2018

The USS pensions strike of February and March was a transformative experience for all of us – and for our union. We would like to capture some of your memories. Some colleagues at Goldsmiths are producing a ‘strike activists’ handbook’ which we intend to contribute to and in Leicester we are thinking of producing a…

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A ‘somewhat tumultuous’ UCU Congress

Published: 3rd June, 2018

UCU conference 2018 was somewhat tumultuous. What follows is our account of what transpired. A collective statement, signed by both of us along with a great many others, which has already been widely circulated, can be seen here. In short, the events were quite shocking, but perhaps not that surprising. UCU employees including the General…

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Build, baby, build… nothing new from the VC

Published: 1st June, 2018

There was nothing new from President Boyle at Wednesday’s Missive to the Masses. We’ve heard it all before…challenging times ahead, too much expenditure on staff, don’t recover enough research spend, pensions cost too much (ha!) and, as had been revealed the previous day, the University’s league table positions leave something to be desired (having plummeted…

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Is it the fall that kills you?

Published: 29th May, 2018

Last week, we reported on University of Leicester’s performance in the Complete University Guide. Published this morning, The Guardian’s Good University Guide. Below we plot our institution’s trajectory over the past decade. Will it end in a sudden stop?

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People vs. the digital campus and investors

Published: 24th May, 2018

Last Thursday (May 17), Paul Boyle sent an email to all colleagues on behalf of the University Leadership Team (ULT). The vice-chancellor announced that – only two years after the last ‘manufactured crisis‘ – the ULT had decided to embark on another campaign of redundancies – compulsory as well as voluntary. This is on top…

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