Loughborough UCU

Tag: Travel

  • Have Your Say: Commuter Travel & Car Parking Survey Now Open

    Over the past few months, we have been building a collective response to the growing concerns around car parking and commuting at Loughborough University.

    We began by highlighting the likely impact of new student accommodation on parking capacity in Central and East Park. We then invited staff to share their experiences, concerns, and suggested solutions, and you responded in large numbers. Your feedback made clear just how significant these issues are for colleagues across the University.

    Now, we are taking the next step.

    Help Shape Our Demands

    We have developed a Commuter Travel & Car Parking Survey to better understand which solutions are most supported by staff.

    Your responses will directly inform:

    • The demands we take to the University
    • A forthcoming open letter, setting out these demands and inviting staff to show their support

    This is a crucial opportunity to ensure that our campaign reflects the views and priorities of staff as strongly and accurately as possible.

    The survey is open to all staff and should only take a few minutes to complete.

    Why Your Voice Matters

    Decisions about parking, commuting, and campus development affect us all, whether you drive, car share, cycle, use public transport, or combine multiple ways of getting to work.

    By completing the survey, you will be helping us to:

    • Identify the most widely supported solutions
    • Strengthen our position by providing additional details
    • Build a united, collective voice across staff

    The stronger the response, the harder it will be for the University to ignore.

    Please Take Part and Share

    We encourage to complete the survey today and to share the survey with your colleagues, in your teams and informal networks. The more staff who take part, the more representative, and impactful, our campaign will be.

    Click here to complete the survey, you can also copy this link to share the survey with colleagues.

    Together, we can ensure that staff voices are heard and that future decisions on commuting and parking are fair, sustainable, and workable for everyone.

    Thank you for your support.

  • War in Western Asia – Support for Members

    In light of the rapidly escalating conflict across the Western Asia (Middle East) region, LUCU extends its support to all members who may be affected. The ongoing conflict may be impacting you in various ways: work and travel safety, research and teaching collaborations, personal or family connections to the region, or the broader distress that events of this nature can bring.

    Travel in Affected Regions

    We would like to highlight the University’s guidance on the issue, which was published on internal news and sent by email on Monday 2nd March.

    However, we note the list of countries named in this guidance (Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar and the UAE, including Dubai, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria ) does not include, in addition to the above, all countries now affected: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey.

    If you are in or travelling through any of these affected regions, whether on University business or personal travel, please inform your line manager and/or School Head of Operations and keep yourself as safe as possible.

    Insurance

    We have confirmed with insurance that colleagues travelling on University business, who commenced travel prior to the conflict’s start and received prior approval for the trip, are covered by University travel insurance until their return to the UK. While the preference is for all travel to be booked through Clarity, any travel booked outside of Clarity would still be covered, provided it was approved in advance.

    If you were planning on travelling to or through these regions for University business, you are unlikely to be covered by the University’s insurance and must not travel without seeking further guidance from your Service or School and the University’s insurance team.

    Compassionate Leave

    The University’s 2-week compassionate leave policy is available for those experiencing stress and trauma connected to a protected characteristic, such as race, which includes ethnicity, nationality, and national origins. In these cases, it is expected that the time off requested will be granted; please approach your line manager in the first instance and contact LUCU if you require support accessing this leave.

    Support and Solidarity

    LUCU is here to support affected individuals through our casework team. The REACH Network and International Staff Group are additional possible sources of support. For immediate mental health support, the Education Support Partnership runs a 24/7 helpline: 08000 562 561.

    The LUCU Committee extends our solidarity and condolences to those who are anxious, suffering or grieving as a result of this devastating war, and expresses our sincere hopes for the conflict to end as soon as possible. We will continue monitoring the situation and are available to meet with members who would like to respond collectively.

    In solidarity

    LUCU Committee