University and College Union National Rally – 25th March – 1pm – Newcastle Monument – Everybody Welcome
Speakers:
12.30pm assemble outside the Civic Centre
12.45pm march to Monument for rally @ 1pm
LUCU unequivocally stands in solidarity with UCU branches that are taking industrial action against the wave of cuts to higher education that is arising in light of the current economic climate. We believe that the local disputes, including Coventry University, Newcastle University, Brunel University, University of Kent Canterbury, and more, are of national significance. These cuts, regardless of form, will fundamentally damage both the sector’s reputation and the national labour market for decades to come.
Our branch recently passed a motion acknowledging that these disputes stem from local financial mismanagement, alongside longstanding structural problems of a broken University funding model and hostile immigration environment. The strategy of campus expansion a revenue generator has proven limited. This ongoing financial crisis, of which the current cuts are merely the latest manifestation, result from decades of sector marketisation.
We believe reimagining the sector’s future requires courage and creativity, looking at and learning from successful government-funded models such as in Germany. London Economics has also proposed viable alternatives to the current broken system, including a stepped repayment system and a graduate tax. Both options would remain fiscally neutral while improving progressivity, with the graduate tax socialising what is currently individualised debt.
Decades of disinvestment in higher education has contributed to current stagflation conditions, themselves symptomatic of poor economic policy, planning, and resilience gaps. Higher education is a public good, not a commodity, and deserves to be valued accordingly.
In our unanimously passed motion of March 12, 2025, we resolved to:
To take a step today, please consider reading and signing this open letter to Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities, and Sunderland MP. Written by Newcastle University UCU and Northern Region UCU, it urges recognition of higher education’s value and implementation of sustainable solutions.
The Grassroots Counter-Playbook: How to Fight the Employers’ Offensive
Thursday 20th March at 12:30pm on Zoom.
With 1000 jobs losses a month and unprecedented crisis in higher education in the UK, a growing number of branches are resisting.
Newcastle, Brunel and Dundee Universities are taking industrial action. Other branches such as Durham, Sheffield, Cardiff have balloted for industrial action.
The employers have a playbook to push through the cuts, we need a counter-playbook.
Come to the meeting to hear how you can support branches taking industrial action and the lessons of moving into action.
They cannot win on their own, we need to get the crisis of our universities onto the government’s agenda.
Link to join the Zoom meeting: https://newcastleuniversity.zoom.us/j/81485600063
Meeting ID: 814 8560 0063
Passcode: 322405
Please also sign the open letter, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTY20tsLYA7JVe6X354VD_e8oS4FGHmm6DEyBBPYj8i6aOO7S5_vyzqpxle8nWYaShxT0NMQ3yU5vfw/pub