Cambridge UCU

Cambridge University and College Union

The University and College Union (UCU) is the largest union and most effective voice for professionals in higher and further education. UCU represents lecturers, researchers, and academic-related staff such as librarians, administrators and computing professionals across the UK.

The Cambridge University and College Union (CUCU) deals with issues at the local level. We meet with the University via the Partnership Working Group and its sub-groups, to discuss employment matters. CUCU has been involved in, among other issues, the introduction of an Equal Opportunities Policy within the University; improved conditions for contract research staff; restructuring of grades and improved promotion procedures for computing staff.

We not only at a national level negotiate pay and conditions for education professionals like you, CUCU locally also deals with any employment- related difficulties our members may have. These are usually resolved successfully by local consultation, with, where appropriate, expert help from our Head Office and Legal Team. If you have a problem at work, UCU is their to offer you support.

UCU members also benefit from a wide range of exclussive services, from offers on insurance to confidential counselling.

More than one 120,000 academic and academic-related staff already benefit from membership of UCU, so why not join them?

By agreement with Unite, both unions represent Technicians at grade 6 and above, and academic-related staff. Unite is the lead union for all matters relating to technicians and UCU is the lead union for all matters relating to academic-related staff. Text of the agreement can be found at UCU/Unite agreement.

Click here to join UCU today, or click here to find out more about UCU membership.

In these pages you can find information about:

• Membership, which is open to all academic and academic-related staff, whether full- time, short-term or part-time
• Meetings planned for the current academic year, and minutes of previous meetings
• Rules of the association
• Executive Committee members, and how to contact them
• Getting help from UCU regarding a problem at work
• Services availiabkle to UCU members
• Links to other useful web sites
• How to find us

The University and College Union national home page is linked from the logo at the top of every CUCU page!

UCU wins landmark fixed-term case

UCU has successfully won a landmark case against the University of Aberdeen to guarantee a permanent contract for a researcher who had employed been on a succession of fixed-term contracts for nine years. A tribunal ruled that Dr Andrew Ball, a research fellow in the department of Zoology, must be recognised as a permanent employee. Sally Hunt said: &#8220This is a very important victory for thousands of university and college staff on fixed- term contracts. Dr Ball had a just case and we will be using this victory to help take on other institutions who refuse to acknowledge the just call for full-time contracts from their staff.&#8221

Keele University greylisting suspended as union strikes deal

UCU has announced that it has reached an interim agreement with Keele University over the current dispute involving the School of Economic and Management Studies (SEMS) and the Centre for Health Planning and Management (CHPM).

As a result, both the current action short of a strike and the threat to ‘greylist’ Keele University have been suspended.

The Keele branch of UCU and the national union are clear that the interim settlement reached should enable the university to avoid compulsory redundancies. However, if the management does not conduct the negotiations in the spirit which has been agreed, greylisting and the action short of a strike can be reinstated.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “We are delighted to have reached a negotiated agreement with Keele University. This agreement has been reached in no small part thanks to the quite incredible support from UCU members in both further and higher education and academics both nationally and internationally.

“Nobody involved with the university wanted to see greylisting and we are delighted that it has not come to this. We now hope that fruitful negotiations can be conducted and there will be no need to reinstate either greylisting or the action short of a strike.

“The support of the union and the wider academic community should serve as a warning to other institutions that UCU will not allow institutions to treat its staff unfairly or disregard its own standards and procedures.”

UCU and management have agreed the following:

• A process will be put in place to determine the details of academic programmes within the proposed school.
• The university will negotiate with UCU, terms for voluntary severance to offer to staff from the areas affected.
• The offer of voluntary severance will remain open until 31 January 2009.
• The university agrees not to deduct any pay in respect of the industrial action short of a strike.
• UCU accepts that these measures are intended to minimise and avoid the need to consider compulsory redundancies. UCU reserves its right to oppose any compulsory redundancies.

In light of this, UCU undertakes to:

• Suspend action on the proposed ‘grey listing’ of the university and to notify all of contacts of this action with immediate effect.
• Suspend the current industrial action short of a strike with immediate effect.
• Write formally to the Visitor to seek that the Visitor stays determination of the Petition until 31 January 2009 and permits the university to take action immediately to implement the matters in this agreement.

Greylisting is the ultimate sanction available to UCU members and is only ever used where a university or college refuses to engage in meaningful negotiations with a branch or local association. Thanks to last minute negotiations between the union and Keele University, no institution has ever been greylisted in UCU’s two-year history.

Lecturers in SEMS and CHPM took strike action on Thursday 21 February and began a boycott of assessment on 6 May. On 22 February all UCU members at Keele began action short of a strike, designed to cause the maximum impact on the university without disrupting the education of students. It included:

• non-cooperation with the institutional audit
• non-cooperation with the development of new degree programmes for the new Business School
• non-participation in Learning and Teaching committees and the design and approval of a new university-wide degree structure due to come into effect in September 2009
• non-participation in visit days and open days
• non-compliance with the collection of data for full economic costing.

Local MP calls for ministerial statement on INTO at Essex

The Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester Bob Russell has tabled a written question to Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham calling for a ministerial statement on discussions between the University of Essex and INTO. This follows last week’s referendum result in which a massive 90% of staff voting rejected the VC Colin Riordan’s plans to set up a ‘Joint Venture’ with the company.

Following the massive ‘No’ vote, UCU general secretary Sally Hunt has written to Professor Riordan calling on him to think again and stop negotiations with INTO. All eyes will be on the Vice Chancellor now to see whether he will genuinely listen to his staff or whether he will try to impose the joint venture regardless. If he does try to press on, Essex UCU and the national union will be stepping up the campaigning.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: Please send messages of support to the branch by emailing Jonathan White and we will pass them on.

Read more about the referendum and the campaign here.

Goldsmiths UCU steps up campaign as college continues private talks with INTO

Campaigning against INTO at Goldsmiths has moved up a gear as the Warden warned that he might bring forward meetings of the college governing bodies in order to push through a deal with INTO. So far, the college has refused to disclose any detail about even the broad outlines of the negotiations, maintaining its silence as staff and students move into the vacation. A well-attended meeting of the new campaign committee laid out a plan to raise awareness of the issue on the campus to try to forestall any early move by the Warden over the summer vacation. Watch this space for more!

National Audit Office says universities failing some sections of society

A report from the National Audit Office into the progress of the government’s Widening Participation in higher education has found that “particular sections of society remain significantly under-represented” and that social class remains a strong determinant of higher education participation. The report also noted that the complex system of bursaries, grants and loans was a deterrent to many students. 12000 students who would have been eligible failed to apply for support, while the report also links the failure of working class students to apply for higher education to lack of understanding of the system. You can read the report here.

UCU Financial Statement 2006-7

Each year, in accordance with the with Section 32A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, UCU issues a statement to members. The statement in respect of the financial period ended 31 August 2007 can be found here.

Our Colleges, Our Universities, our Communities, Our Union

Help UCU to win a better deal for tertiary education — nominate someone for a Life Changers Award today

It’s a commonplace among politicians and the public that knowledge is power and that education is vital to our society, economy and culture. But we all know that these warm words rarely translate into action. We have a big job to do in defending education and the right to learn from the encroachment of the market, in arguing for more resources, winning a better deal and defending professional standards. If we are going to make real change, we will have to win greater public support for our arguments and this means raising the profile of tertiary education to educate the public about the fantastic work that our members do every day.

UCU’s Life Changers campaign is a crucial part of this work.

What is Life Changers?

The Life Changers Awards were set up to help shed a light on the amazing stories that make up everyday life in our sector. But Life Changers is an awards scheme with a difference. Instead of simply rewarding individual success or excellence, Life Changers is an opportunity to express and celebrate the values that are dear to us: team work, promoting equality and opportunity, questioning orthodoxies and extending knowledge, bringing hope to people who are excluded or left behind, unlocking ambition and aspiration and developing peoples’ potential to the very fullest, whatever that potential may be. Life Changers also gives us an opportunity to talk about the barriers and obstacles that our members face in a more receptive public context. The Life Changers awards will be judged by a panel of practitioners and members, so they are controlled by and reflect the values of our union and our members.

How You Can Help

Nominate someone you know now. The more people who are nominated from across our sector, the better we will be able to illuminate the problems and the achievements of our sector and the more support we will win for all of our campaigning to defend education.

You can read about Life Changers and nominate someone you know now by clicking here.

Read about last year’s winners here.

Nominations close at the begining of March.

CUCU Interactive

Cambridge UCU has recently established a “CamTools” group aimed at members who want to get more involved with the union.

The CamTools group is a way for Cambridge UCU members to access resources, receive announcements and discuss UCU business with other members.

If you would like to become more involved with Cambridge UCU and join in the discussion, please email admin@ucu.cam.ac.uk and you will be added to this group.

Universities ignoring law on staff contracts

Employment laws that came into effect in 2006 state that staff members who have been on fixed-term contracts for more than four years can now regard their posts as permanent.

However, despite knowledge of these provisions for over six years, there is evidence that many departments have not yet begun to implement them. There are nearly 70,000 academics and academic-related staff employed by UK institutions on short-term contracts, more than 43% of all academic and related staff.

If you think this applies to you, please contact either your dep rep, or email the Cambridge UCU administrator.

For more details and advice click here.

News from UCU nationally

For the latest news from UCU, visit the national UCU website.

For the latest update from the UCU Higher Education campaign team, click here.

UCU also has regular newsletters on HE News, Pension News, Health & Safety News and Equality News.

CUCU Newsletters

Services from national UCU

The College and University Support Network (CUSN - a partnership between UCU and the Teacher Support Network) offers a range of free services including round-the-clock telephone counselling, a website of factsheets, online coaching, money advice and needs-based grants and loans.

UCU’s developing activists network — DAN — is a vibrant community of members working together and supporting each other as they work on issues affecting their workplace, the union, or the wider world.

UCU Legal Scheme — Like all unions UCU tries to resolve members’ employment related disputes through negotiations at local level. Your branch or local association should always be your first port of call. However, sometimes disputes cannot be resolved locally. Consequently, the union offers legal services to members.

Accident Aid - Every year thousands of injuries are sustained in the workplace. The union's specialist personal injury lawyers can advise and represent you to recover compensation.

Free UCU insurance cover — all UCU members are insured for serious accidents and loss of property at work, including up to £250 against theft of property, against malicious damage to the motor vehicles of UCU members, personal injury insurance including up to £12,000 against death or permanent disability, and £25 per day for up to 40 days in hospital and 40 days convalescence after an accident. As always, there are some situations for which members are not covered. For full details of the policy see UCUplus.

Endsleigh Insurance offer UCU members a number of special offers, including:

Low cost rates and great cover benefits on car, home or travel insurance;
A mortgage and life insurance search facility, searching 1000s of products on the market.

UCU has launched an online database of conditions of employment in UK higher education, run throught the Labour Research Department. The database holds conditions information from higher education institutions, and members will be able to search the database by topic or by institution, allowing members to compare Cambridge to other universities, highlight good practice elsewhere and use this information in negotiations or when considering a move.

Journal of Further & Higher Education - Published for UCU by Taylor and Francis the Journal of Further & Higher Education is an international, peer-reviewed journal containing articles and book reviews representing the whole field of further education and training. The journal encourages debate on contemporary pedagogic issues and professional and policy concerns within the UK and abroad.

AUT4jobs.com is a partnership between UCU and The Internet Corporation (IntCorp). AUT4jobs.com is an internet jobs portal that provides details of academic and academic related vacancies across the UK. It was developed because many members complained that when they apply for new jobs, they are often ignorant of their rights at work and the role of the union.

And more from UCUplus...