Loughborough UCU

Category: Newsletter

LUCUs regular members newsletter

  • At What Cost? The Impact of the Voluntary Exit and Hours Reduction Scheme

    Across the University, there has been a substantial uptake of the Voluntary Exit and Hours Reduction offerings as part of the wider Cost Reduction Scheme. The University has now ‘saved’ in the region of £4m by encouraging people to leave or to reduce their contracts. Following the success of this scheme, Loughborough UCU are concerned about the impact on those left behind. 

    We are hosting an open meeting on Friday, February 28 from 2:00 PM to 2:50 PM on Teams to discuss the impact on workload for remaining Loughborough staff and doctoral researchers. All Loughborough staff and DRs are invited, whether you are a UCU member or not. 

    Are you an academic whose teaching has increased? Are you a DR who has taken on more research or marking without additional compensation? Is your Professional Services team now trying to cover the same amount of work with fewer staff? We want to hear from you!

    Come and share your thoughts and experiences, hear from other people about what is happening in their areas, and discuss how people are managing increases in workload across the University. Please feel free to invite others in your area to attend as we are keen to include as wide a view as possible.

    You can download an invite for your calendar here, or use this link to join the meeting.

  • Loughborough Senate Vacancy – Nominations invited

    Nominations have been invited to fill one vacancy on Senate for a non-Professorial member of the Academic Staff, elected by the Academic and Academic-Related staff members of the General Assembly.

    We encourage our members to put themselves forward for this role to increase the number of Union-affiliated voices on this important University decision making body.

    The branch will support UCU member nominations by encouraging the LUCU membership to vote for its candidates. Please let us know if you put yourself forward.

    Nominations must be received by the election team by 5.00 p.m. on Wednesday 12 February 2025, and more information can be found on the University website here.

  • Academic Related Professional Services Workplace Conditions Survey

    The academic related, professional services staff (ARPS) committee is undertaking a survey of ARPS members to better understand the experiences of physical issues in your workplaces and the implementation of hybrid working by employers.

    ARPS members are asked to complete this short survey, which will inform discussions at the ARPS annual meeting on 6th March and the work of the committee in the coming year.

  • Cradle to Grave 2025 Conference

    Registration is open for UCU’s Cradle to Grave conference, which will take place on Saturday 29th March.

    This annual conference is a chance for members to gather together to discuss some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the sectors where we organise. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Education for liberation: building progressive post-16 education policy’. You can find out more about the conference, here.

    The conference will be run as a hybrid event, with options to attend in person at the CCT Venue, Smithfields, London or online via Zoom. We expect spaces for the in-person event to fill up quickly so register as soon as possible to secure your place.

    The deadline to register is Thursday 13th March and the conference is free to attend. You can book your place here.

  • UCU Elections – Make sure your voice is heard

    Voting in the UCU Trustee, Officer and NEC elections positions has opened, with the ballot window closing by 5.00 p.m. on Monday 3 March 2025.

    This is a key moment for members to make their voices heard, especially since low voter turnout (often around 10%) means that members’ votes carry considerable weight. These elected representatives take important decisions – so whichever way you vote, we strongly urge you to use your ballot and make sure your voice is heard.

    You can find more information on the process and all of the candidates in your ballot pack, as well as on the UCU UK elections 2024-25 webpage.

    If you have not yet received the ballot pack, please contact UCU to request a duplicate ballot paper using this online form. The last day on which duplicate ballot material enquiries will usually be dealt with is Monday 24 February 2025. 

  • Leicester & District Trades Union Council Events

    Your Rights, The Law, and Empowerment Event

    Unite Community Leicester has organised an event “Your Rights, The Law, and Empowerment” on Sunday 19th January 2025 from 11am – 4pm. Everyone is welcome to join them at: Secular Hall, 75 Humberstone Gate, Leicester (LE1 1WB).

    Lawyers will give three presentations to update you on laws around protest and strike action, with each focusing on one of the following topics: “Unions”, “Palestine” and “Climate & Ecological Emergency”. The event is supported by Leicester & District Trades Union Council (L&DTUC). For more information, please see this flyer.

    Organising the next Workers Memorial Day

    The Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) subcommittee of Leicester & District Trades Union Council (L&DTUC) will meet to start organising the next Workers Memorial Day event. The meeting will be on Tuesday 21st January 2025 starting at 6pm and, it’s hoped, will not last much more than an hour. All trade unionists are welcome. You do not need to be a trades council delegate to get involved. The organising meeting will be held on Zoom. If you’re interested in contributing, please use this link to join the meeting.

  • Annual Meeting for Members on Casualised Contracts

    The UCU national annual meeting for members on casualised contracts will be held on Saturday 22nd February and will be in hybrid format, both on-line and in London. The meeting is an opportunity to network, to find out what the Anti-Casualisation committee (ACC) have been doing over the past 12 months, to elect members to the committee and, to debate motions.

    The exact content of the meeting is still being finalised, but the intention is to have a panel discussion on how the union progresses its anti-casualisation work and workshops on the new Employment Rights bill, the launch of the Researcher manifesto and anti-casualisation and equality.

    For full details on how to register, how to send motions and how to make nominations to the ACC will be available shortly, here.

    UCU are encouraging members on casualised contracts to consider attending the event, raising motions for the meeting and to consider putting yourself forward to join the anti-casualisation committee as there are lots of places available this year. For more information please contact Jane Thompson here.

  • New Reps in ONCampus & London and Appointment of Branch Membership Secretary

    We are very pleased to announce that we now have two department reps in Lboro London. Matt Vidal has stepped back into the role following a short break and will work alongside our new London Rep, Anaïs Carlton-Parada. We are also delighted to announce we now have a department rep in Lboro ONCampus where Pedro Nunes has recently taken on the role. We know all three of these reps will do a great job representing members in London and ONCampus.

    In addition to our new reps, we also are also very happy to announce that Eleanor Roberts, who joined the branch committee in the summer as an ordinary member, has been appointed as the branch Membership Secretary. Eleanor will take a lead in the important areas of recruitment and organising in the branch.

    Anaïs Carlton-Parada, LUCU Rep for Loughborough London.

    “I’m Dr Anaïs Carlton-Parada and I’ve been a researcher and teaching fellow at Loughborough University London for four years in the Institute for Creative Futures. Prior to working at Loughborough, I was a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, U.S., in Anthropology. This is my first union role, although I have been involved in union actions since my start at Loughborough. My research and personal interests align through actionable care and moving toward equity in significant, tangible ways, so I’m looking forward to supporting as a rep and being a first point of contact for our union members.”

    Matt Vidal, LUCU Rep for Loughborough London.

    “I joined Loughborough London in 2017 as Reader in Sociology and Political Economy. I was deeply involved in union activism during my PhD programme at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I was an Organizing Committee and Executive Board member, Teaching Assistants’ Association, AFT #3220. I took some years off from formal union activism work after I got my first academic job at King’s College London, though was always active in following and supporting UCU and all other unions. I first started as department rep at Loughborough London in 2022.”

    Pedro Nunes, LUCU Rep for ONCampus.

    “I joined UCU during my time as an FE teacher, after coming into contact with the “Respect FE” campaign. Around a year and a half ago, I was employed by ONCampus at Loughborough University, right after the opening of the new pre-programme centre for international students. Previously, I took precarious teaching positions both at Durham and Leicester Universities. These experiences gave me insights into some of the most pernicious dynamics currently affecting the sector, and how unions are one of the main drivers of positive change. Consequently, it is fundamental for unions to stand by policies that empower our members and strengthen our collective voice.”

    We currently have vacancies for Reps in Computer Science, Lboro Sport, Chemistry, Student Services, Lboro Law & Wolfson. Interested members from those areas are encouraged to get in touch with our Branch Organiser, Callum Salfield, for more information or a chat about the role.

  • LUCU Equality Report: 2024 UCU Equality Conference and Local Developments 

    LUCU Equality Officer (EO), Dr Angela Martinez Dy, recently attended the 2024 UCU Equality Groups Conference at Aston University in Birmingham. This annual event comprises five conferences over three days, serving disabled members, Black members, migrant members, women members, and LGBTQ+ members.  

    Angela participated in the migrant and women’s conferences in person, whilst attending some of the Black members’ and LGBTQ+ conference online. All were offered in hybrid format. She did not attend the disabled members’ conference as she does not identify as a member of the group. 

    Overall, this valuable space enables members from these groups to openly raise and discuss important issues relevant to them and thus to the Union as a whole. We encourage LUCU members from any of these groups to consider attending. UCU National reimburses reasonable expenses for attendance. 

    Migrant Members’ Conference 

    The Migrant Members’ committee is the most recently established of the equality groups. At this conference, several crucial issues were discussed, including:  

    • the challenges of transitioning from biometric residence permits (BRP) to e-visas 
    • inviting speakers from the Global South to UCU Congress 2025 
    • UCU’s ongoing lobbying against the immigration health surcharge, which the union argues constitutes double taxation alongside National Insurance contributions 
    • HMRC’s classification of university-reimbursed visa fees as workplace benefits. 

    A panel featuring solicitor Kemi Obayelu, Dr Kamran Khan, and Dr Paul John Alegado provided valuable insights into migrant perception and contributions to UK society, challenging narratives that frame migrants as security threats and societal burdens. 

    Women’s Conference 

    Intersectionality formed the central theme of the women’s conference, featuring keynote speakers including UCU President Maxine Looby, Dr Jenny Douglas, Dr Amelia Baldwin, and Dr Victoria Showunmi. Vibrant discussion and debate following these presentations, exploring both the importance of intersectionality (and avoiding its dilution and depoliticisation) and ways to continue to address women’s marginality within interlocking structures of oppression. 

    Black Members’ Conference 

    The conference opened with a focused discussion on the ongoing review of racism within UCU itself, with President Maxine Looby sharing her experiences and initiatives as a Black woman resisting racism within the Executive. This was followed by an impactful workshop on challenging workplace racism, led by Nitin Rajyaguru and Saleem Rashid. 

    LGBTQ+ Members’ Conference 

    Angela attended portions of this conference remotely, noting particularly engaging presentations from Muwonge Gerald, Lexi Breen, and Harun Tulunay, who highlighted the continued risks to LGBTQ+ safety and the need to better incorporate international LGBTQ+ experiences into our understandings of inequality. 

    Local Developments 

    Following a handover from Kerry Featherstone in October 2024, Angela has stepped into her role as EO with great enthusiasm. A former leader of the BAME (now REACH) staff network, EDI Advisory Forum initiator and co-chair, and Strategic Architect of the LU Race Equity Strategy, as LUCU EO Angela is now part of the University’s EDI Board and contributing to the implementation of the newly approved EDI Core Plan. Key developments from the latest Board meeting include: 

    • Recruitment planning for new associate directors’ EDI roles 
    • Collaborating with Organisational Development to enhance reasonable adjustments processes 
    • Promoting the uptake and use of equality impact assessments (EIAs) across the University 

    Angela has also conducted a thorough demographic analysis (descriptive statistics only) of LUCU’s membership as of Oct 2024, looking at age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and contract type/status data, as well as some relevant intersections. Although numbers are very small in places, patterns locally mirror expectations based on national trends. For example, local membership data suggest that higher percentages of women and BAME people hold fixed-term contracts (50% women, 11.3% BAME) as compared to permanent contracts (42% women, 5.8% BAME), and that a large majority of our members on part-time contracts are women (78%).  

    Following her analysis of these data and her attendance at the Equality Groups Conference, Angela will work with LUCU Branch Organiser Callum Salfield to conduct a series of online focus groups with LUCU Members to better understand their needs and priorities. The proposed groups include: Migrant, Black/BAME, Women and Gender Non-Conforming, LGBTQ+, Disabled, and Early Career members. If you have feedback on these plans or are interested in participating, please message Callum with the groups you wish to be included in, and/or keep an eye out in emails and future newsletters for upcoming polls for dates and times. Members are welcome to attend more than one if multiple categories apply.  

    Finally, we would like members to note that last year, our committee raised a motion calling for UCU to change the “Equality Officer” title to “Equity Officer” in line with changing terminology at Loughborough. It became clear that that the process to amend the terminology was too complex and time-consuming to be worthwhile, so we decided instead to focus on progressing work directly addressing the many equity and equality related issues instead. 

    Please message Angela to discuss this update or any equality or equity related issues. 

  • Week of Action on Palestinian Right to Education

    In response to Birzeit University’s call for academics, activists, unions and solidarity groups to participate in the “Right to Education” Week of Action (November 23-30). Loughborough UCU (LUCU) organised an awareness-raising event amplifying the theme of “United Against Scholasticide”, highlighting Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s higher education infrastructure and community.

    On November 28th, colleagues and doctoral researcher members of LUCU based on the London campus hosted a stall from 10AM-4PM. Printed resources from Scholars Against the War on Palestine (SWAP), including its useful toolkit, were made available, alongside flyers from other solidarity organisations. These set out the definition of scholasticide and the devastating statistics regarding affected educational institutions, educators and students. LUCU’s new Palestinian Solidarity Working Group, formed in response to a successful member-raised motion to support Loughborough Action for Palestine Coalition, also created and distributed a leaflet in printed and digital versions, highlighting British universities’ potential complicity in the genocide through collaborative research and development partnerships with organisations enabling Israel’s occupation, colonialism and apartheid.

    At the time of writing (2/12/2024), SWAP’s tracker for scholasticide notes the following:

    • All 11 Gazan universities have been bombed
    • 5,213 students have been murdered
    • 90,000 university students cannot attend university
    • 8,691 students have been injured.
    • 370 schools have been damaged or destroyed, leaving more than 620,000 students out of schools
    • At least 239 educators have been killed
    • 60% of bookshops and libraries have been destroyed

    The stall and stallholders were met with an overall curious and positive reception from both staff and students. On the same day, Loughborough Action for Palestine Coalition endorsed and attended a rally hosted by other university coalitions and solidarity groups to protest the University of London’s injunction to criminalise protests in support of the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement on campus.

    Dr Angela Martinez Dy, LUCU Equality Officer, commented: “The ongoing destruction by Israel’s military of Palestinian knowledge, evident in the targeting of educators and students in the ongoing war, is a concern for academia globally. It’s great to see LUCU members responding to Palestinian scholars’ leadership, drawing attention and raising awareness about scholasticide amongst the Loughborough Uni community, and encouraging people to take action.”

    Please consider signing the petition here, and contact LUCU Equality Officer Angela Martinez Dy to join the working group and progress future actions.

    Thanks go to Iman Khan and the LUCU Palestinian Solidarity Working Group for writing this update.