Notice of Industrial Action by members of UCU

Message to all Students -

You may have heard that the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU), which represents some academic and academic-related staff at the University, has announced its intention to hold a national period of industrial action. This includes proposed national strike days this month on Thursday 24, Friday 25 and Wednesday 30 November. In addition, UCU have confirmed that they will commence Action Short Of a Strike (ASOS) commencing 23 November.

We are disappointed that this further period of industrial action is taking place, 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. However, since this is a national dispute the University cannot act independently to bring about a resolution. 

On each strike day some members of academic staff 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 support services across the campus. 

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

We will continue to provide students affected by the action with alternative support activities and online materials. Your School/Department will make every effort to make alternative arrangements for any cancelled events, including lectures, seminars, individual appointments, lab sessions etc, and will be putting mitigations in place to cover any lost learning sessions.

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

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