UNISON members at the University of Birmingham to take strike action for fair pay, equality, and improved working conditions UNISON members at the University of Birmingham vote to take strike action over 2018-19 negotiations on pay, equality and working conditions. 51.3% of support staff members took part in the ballot, with 78.6% voting in favour…
To mark the opening of the Green Heart, staff and students are holding an all day protest event to remind the VC David Eastwood and University management that this is our campus and #OurUniversity. Between 12.30pm – 1.30pm, UNISON and UCU, together with students, will be holding a protest against the lack of democracy at…
The Guardian have put out a call for anonymous submissions on the issue of institutional and direct racism on UK university campuses. We encourage you to submit your accounts. They ask: What are your experiences of racism on the UoB campus? Follow this link: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/20/what-are-your-experiences-of-racism-at-university We would also like to bring to your attention a…
UKHE Plc. How British universities are lining the pockets of Middle Eastern autocrats The article reads: ‘In Dubai, being gay or transgender risks imprisonment, flogging and execution, yet UoB has left staff and students without adequate guidance on what it will do to protect their rights when working or studying in Dubai, union leaders say’. To read the entire article (pp. 18-22), please…
State of Higher Education – please read the news below – all of them published just last week. Part of the list was compiled by @UUKSpin 1. University of Reading (£££ blackhole) https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/09/reading-university-in-crisis-amid-questions-over-121m-land-sales 2. Swansea University (problematic Kuwait deal) https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/swansea-university-600m-joint-venture-15798126 3. Cardiff Metropolitan University (VC/DVC vanished on ‘sick leave’) https://the-eye.wales/sick-with-fear/ 4. De Montfort University (conflict…
Emergency Motion – Overseas Ventures An increasing number of Higher Education Institutions are increasing their involvement in overseas ventures, whether this be financial partnerships with local providers or directly operated overseas campuses. A specific recent example of the latter is the campus operated by the University of Birmingham in Dubai, soon to undergo a dramatic…
We are deeply concerned about the safety of staff and students on the Dubai campus. We wrote a letter to the university with a series of questions and reassurances that we need from them (the letter is available here https://uobunison.org.uk/letter-dubai-campus) but all we received was a vague response with a series of links to intranet pages. …
An all staff meeting will be held on Thursday 22nd November in the Dome Lecture Theatre, Aston Webb, between 12.00pm – 12.50pm (please invite non-members!) It will be followed by a session between 1-2pm (in the same LT) where students will be able to join us and ask questions about our current priorities and how…
We are delighted to announce that the turnout for the indicative ballot is 54.5%, with 87.9% voting ‘YES’. Members have overwhelmingly rejected the University’s offer and the turnout gives us the option of a strike ballot if we don’t get an improved pay offer along with action on job security, casualisation, workload and equality. We would like to…
Following the devastating news that appeared this week in the media regarding the detention in UAE of a Durham University PhD student since May 2018, UNISON emailed the University of Birmingham on Friday 12th October to raise our concerns, and to find out whether our institution has done anything to facilitate Matthew Hodges’ release. We…
