We’re writing to ask for your support for colleagues at Coventry University, who are currently facing a serious and deeply troubling escalation of attacks on job security and sector-wide standards. Coventry UCU has reached out to branches across the country to highlight their situation and to ask for our help in amplifying a national UCU vote of no confidence in their Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Latham CBE.
You can add your name to the vote here:
https://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/vote-of-no-confidence-in-the-vice-chancellor-at-coventry-university/
Staff at Coventry are presently resisting compulsory redundancies and a sharp acceleration of subsidiarisation, a model that fragments the workforce, bypasses sector agreements, and threatens to hollow out stable, secure academic and professional roles. If allowed to take hold, these practices risk setting precedents that could spread across the UK higher education sector – undermining pay, conditions, and governance far beyond Coventry alone.
This vote of no confidence is an important opportunity for members across UCU to demonstrate that we reject these damaging approaches to university management. A strong response from branches nationwide will help send a clear signal that such governance failures are unacceptable and that the sector will not stand by while staff protections are dismantled.
We encourage all Lboro UCU members to take a moment to add your name to the vote and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with colleagues at Coventry. Their fight is not only about the future of their institution – it has implications for all of us.
Please add your name if you can, and share the link with colleagues who may also wish to support.