Commenting on the news that five Scottish universities were included in the top 200 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, UCU Scotland Official, Mary Senior, said: ‘This is great news for higher education in Scotland, and a welcome reward for the teaching and research staff who have worked hard to achieve these results.

‘UCU Scotland believe the proposals in the Higher Education Governance Bill to reform the way our universities are run and ensure they are more democratic, accountable and transparent can only strengthen the sector and ensure that Scotland’s universities deliver for students, our economy and wider society.’

The ranking can be found on the Times Higher Education website.

Murdo Mathison
scotland@ucu.org.uk

UCU said the government’s plans would do nothing to improve workers’ rights and exposed the government’s plans as an attack on working people.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘The Conservatives have made a considerable effort to portray themselves as the party on the side of working people. However, reducing the few rights that workers still retain inside an already tight legal framework on industrial action will do nothing to help working people or their employers.

Strikes arise because of a breakdown between staff and their employer. If these proposals are enacted they will only increase mistrust between the two and worsen industrial relations. Strikes are always a last resort and never taken lightly by people who forfeit their pay.

If the government was serious about increasing democracy in union ballots it would allow things such as electronic and workplace voting. Instead it is seeking to impose minimum turnout levels and victory margins that were not applied in the general election or the Scottish referendum.

Demanding unions secure the kind of results that MPs couldn’t, and police commissioners daren’t even dream of, expose these regressive plans as a blatant attack on workers’ rights.’

• UCU press office
  press@ucu.org.uk
  Tel:020 7756 2598
  Fax:020 7756 2501

UCU members are encouraged to sign a new Egypt Solidarity statement condemning the recent death sentences that have been announced by the Egyptian authorities. One of those condemned to death is Professor Emad Shahin from the American University in Cairo.  

 Staff have backed strike action at the University of Aberdeen in protest over the loss of 150 jobs. UCU rep Andrew MacKillop told the BBC that ‘members have made it quite clear that they reject the job losses proposed by the university’, adding in the THE that ‘any move to make staff compulsorily redundant will be strongly opposed’. The National reported that the job losses come at a time when the university has strong reserves, and that some of the planned savings would be used to boost surpluses at the university. Members are due to lobby the university court on 30 June and the branch is currently considering next steps.

Please show your support by signing the petition calling on management to work with the union to find alternatives here.

New UCU Scotland President Douglas Chalmers has written a report from the recent protest at the Dungavel Detention Centre. You can read it on the blog here: https://ucuscotland.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/report-from-dungavel-protest/

UCU recently won a major case in the Supreme Court against Stirling University, and you can read more in a new blog from UCU on the Institute of Employment Rights website here.

The university employers have made a final offer of a 1 per cent pay increase for staff next year. Responding to the offer, announced by the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association after Tuesday’s negotiating meeting, UCU head of bargaining and negotiations, Michael MacNeil, told Times Higher Education it was wrong to bring individual employees’ pay progression increments into the debate about national salary rises. ‘The employers are trying to inflate the worth of the offer but, let’s be clear, for the vast majority of staff it is simply a 1 per cent increase to the pay scales. The offer will be discussed at our annual conference later this month, where delegates will consider the offer and whether to put it to members’, he said.

Dear Colleagues,

You may be interested in signing and sharing this petition to support staff at Aberdeen UCU who are facing the loss of 150 posts.

https://www.ucu.org.uk/no-aberdeen-redundancies

Thank you

HWUCU Committee

Dear Colleagues,

One of Athena SWAN’s core principles is that ‘The system of short-term contracts has particularly negative consequences for the retention and progression of women in science, which the university recognises.’

As part of the University’s Bronze Athena SWAN action plan, we will be hosting a series of focus groups to better understand whether and how women on short-term contracts at Heriot-Watt are more negatively impacted than their male colleagues and what we might be able to do about that. Whilst we are committed to understanding the elements that particularly affect women, we recognise that part of this issue relates to the traditionally gendered nature of care-giving,  and that anyone, regardless of gender, who holds a substantial care-giving role will be exposed to some of the same challenges.

It will be important to understand how we might create a more positive experience for all people on fixed-term contracts regardless of gender.  We invite notes of interest from both male and female staff members on fixed-term contracts interested in joining the focus group. We are particularly interested to hear from our post-doctoral community, and from male and female care-givers. Focus groups are likely to be held on 20 May, 4-5pm and 21 May, 10-11am. Please note your interest in the first instance by letting us know your availability on those two dates via the Doodle poll. Please write your email address in the ‘name’ field so that we can contact you.

http://doodle.com/4r34tssgvmmrzf5e

If you wish to participate but are unable to make either of those dates, please note your interest with Tina Donnelly (t.donnelly@hw.ac.uk).

Sincerely

Dr Kate Sang

On behalf of the Athena SWAN Strategy Committee