Information for all students: Notice of Industrial Action by members of UCU

Nationally, the Universities and College Union (UCU) that represents some academic and academic-related staff at the University has announced its intention to hold 10 days of strike action in February and March in its continuing national dispute. This is in addition to ongoing action short of a strike (ASOS).

The ten days of strikes will take place over - 

• Monday 14 February to Friday 18 February 2022  (5 days)
• Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 February 2022   (2 days)
• Monday 28 February, Tuesday 01 and Wednesday 02 March 2022  (3 days)
• Action Short of a Strike will run until 3 May 2022.

On each strike day a number of academic staff members are likely to refuse to attend work or perform their duties – which may result in some cancelled sessions. The University will, however, be open and operating otherwise normally, including the Main Library, all study spaces and other services across the campus. 

We appreciate that the prospect of industrial action might cause you some concern and we would like to reassure you that we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact of any strike action on you and your studies. Our priority will be to ensure students and staff can continue to fully engage in campus life throughout any period of industrial action, including academic, social and other activities. We will take concerted action to minimise the impact on student learning, outcomes and experience and we are planning to do everything we can to monitor the situation and put mitigations in place.

The most obvious and immediate impact upon some of you, on some courses, will potentially be the cancelling of timetabled sessions on the relevant strike dates. Academic staff who strike do not have to inform the University in advance that they are striking and so we will not always be able to inform you that this is going to happen.  We expect that the vast majority of timetabled sessions will continue as normal and many students will see no disruption to their studies, however the level of impact will vary for different courses and Schools.

We will make every reasonable effort to contact students in advance about any changes or cancellations and, where possible, this will be communicated to you via your School/Department. Your School/Department will make every effort to make alternative arrangements for any cancelled events, including lectures, seminars, individual appointments, lab sessions etc. This might include scheduling relevant support activities at other times and/or providing alternative materials online.

Please check your University emails frequently, and via Canvas, for further updates.

For more information, we have published some Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) on our webpages.