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qmucu.bsky.social
QM_UCU
@qmucu.bsky.social
1.8K followers 3.3K following 2.4K posts
Local University & College Union branch at Queen Mary University of London. || Account checked only part-time; allow time for responses or reach us via email. https://qmucu.org/
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qmucu.bsky.social
This is *exactly* the same phrasing as the management used @qmul.bsky.social.

This is work that has been withdrawn as part of legal industrial action. Management is demanding staff undoes their own industrial action and performs the work they have not been paid for, on top of their existing work.
But the university has now said if they do not carry out the missed teaching, despite not having been paid for it, an extra two weeks of pay in January would also be withheld. A university spokesperson said the approach was "ensuring students receive the education they are entitled to with minimal disruption", while the UCU said the institution was "intimidating" its members. "We respect the right of staff members to participate in industrial action and understand this decision is not taken lightly," the university spokesperson said. They said staff who chose not to replace missed teaching due to strike action would be in breach of contract, so not paying them was "in line with our long-established policy". Pay for the period of 5 to 16 January would be withheld "until it is clear that arrangements for lost learning for our students have been made, either by 7 February 2026 or ahead of any assessment which relies on the learning, whichever is earliest".
December 3, 2025 at 7:11 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
And De Montfort University!

Which other Nous-victims are there in #UKHE?
short private eye article about de montfot university spending millions of pounds on private consultancy on leadership, management, and finance
December 2, 2025 at 9:15 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
that would be brilliant!

(adding DMU to the list of UK Nous-victims, had forgotten about this little nugget: )
private eye short article about De Montfort University in leeicester spending a lot of money on external consultants
December 2, 2025 at 9:13 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
Whatever the outcome of the ballot, the map of redundancies in #UKHE remains full. So let’s keep organising.

Post ballot meeting to discuss organising and next steps towards a dispute with the Secretary of State

THU 4 DEC, 6-7:30pm
Register for link: luma.com/85pdolbj
Post ballot rank-and-file meeting & next steps in an all out sector dispute. With a map of all the universities where redundancies are being made, which covers all of the UK…
December 2, 2025 at 8:10 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
You’re never going to guess who drew up @qmul.bsky.social’s ✨Strategy 2030✨… nousgroup.com/case-studies...

All those #UKHE places that have been prioritising KPIs over actual strategy? Go and look for the Nous-or-other-consultancy contract…
Queen Mary University of London is a Russell Group university with more than 20,000 students. It is a leading UK research university with a strong commitment to social justice and student diversity. The university needed a new strategy to achieve its 2030 aspirations Queen Mary University sought a 10-year growth strategy to help it achieve its ambitious 2030 goals. The university has a highly decentralised structure in which individual schools were operating with significant autonomy. This had historically made operational and strategic decision-making complex.
December 1, 2025 at 10:43 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
'Coventry is a great example' should have set off all the alarm bells.

Nous grab data, give the same generic powerpoint, know that cutting programmes doesn't reduce cost but do it anyway because it looks like 'tough decisions', & staff can't challenge because we're not given access to the data.
Screenshot of a tweet by Nous Group about reducing the number of programmes at Coventry
November 30, 2025 at 12:15 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
yeah. Why are those university chairs marking their own homework though?

If you're looking for some casestudies to develop and staff to talk with, give us a ring.

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/smith-g...
Referencing a report released by the Office for Students earlier this month that said universities had been “overly optimistic” in their forecasts and predicted 45 per cent of the sector may report financial deficits this year, Smith said there had been a “failure to forecast” and “recognise risk”. The Committee of University Chairs, which represents UK university governing bodies, is currently reviewing higher education governance – work Smith described as “important”. “I think all institutions…should be thinking about who they have available to them and how they’re using them to make sure that they are doing that strategic planning that we’ve now put the sector in a position to do [by uplifting tuition fees], but also understanding risk and other challenges,” she said.
November 27, 2025 at 6:19 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
YOU DID ADD TWO REASONS, @ducu.bsky.social! I didn’t fully go mad — excellent psychological warfare though.

Anyway, read it, #UCU members. #UKHE: durhamucu.org.uk/26-reasons-y...
Screenshot of four chrome tabs open on a ohone: one of them is titled 26 reasons and the other 28 reasons, both are by Durham UCU
November 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
We're hearing of a lot of members not receiving their ballot. If that's you, please request your replacement ballot TODAY.

Deadline to request replacement ballots is 23 NOVEMBER yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheu...

#WeAreTheUniversity #SaveHE #UKHE #UCU
QR code to request a replacement ballot. Deadlien 23 November https://yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/wearetheuniversity-GTVO/
November 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
the angry goose meme. The goose first glares suspiciously as they ask 'who achieved that?' In the second panel, we see the angry goose chasing a guy in a (goose feather) puffer jacket while screaming 'whose labour made that achievement possible in the first place?'
November 13, 2025 at 3:18 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
LEAFLETS! Come and get your leaflets!

#WeAreTheUniversity #SaveHE

Pdf version: qmucu.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
A picture of a hand holding leaflets with big headings “pay” “conditions” “jobs”
November 11, 2025 at 8:15 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
The Post Office was once a public service. Corporatisation began under Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2000 and was completed by David Cameron’s coalition government in 2012. This change brought a profit-driven, defensive management culture to the Post Office — one that prioritised institutional reputation and revenue. Similarly, UK universities have evolved from public educational institutions into quasi-private corporations, competing for home & international students and global rankings. With this commercialisation has come risk aversion, PR management and brand protection over transparency or accountability. In both cases, managerialism has uprooted an older public service ethos.
November 9, 2025 at 9:06 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
For the record: the comms title we lost 😭
Screenshot from a google doc with the draft of comms. the original title read 'nobody puts staff in the corner'. The edited title reads 'staff's voice matters. Your vote matters.'
November 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
Gonna need someone to check the dictionary definition of 'to pre-empt' because what else is this but pre-empting the decision of Council?

You'd hope those Council members don't appreciate having their hands tied like this. Because this is proper governance failure.
The courses will be suspended from 10 November, with the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service also set to be informed. "Ahead of these proposals being put forward to the university's council later this month, we have taken the decision to suspend a small number of courses where demand is low or where they are not meeting the benchmark against a number of other criteria," a spokesperson said. "While the university cannot pre-empt the decision by its council over the future of these courses, it is important it does not continue to recruit to courses which are proposed for closure."
November 6, 2025 at 1:58 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
We need a mandate, because managers and their consultants have pivoted the purpose of our institutions from research & education to prioritising financial gain over everything.

Enough.

Staff and students need to be central in the decision-making processes and priorities again.
#SaveHE #WeAreTheUni
We are the university. Staff need each other; staff need visibility; staff need a voice. We need a seat at the table. Managers are actively playing divide and rule – leaving individual staff fearful for their jobs and entire departments anxious about their futures. We've proven we're stronger when we work together. This ballot is to go out with all unions in the sector. Staff are treated as a ‘payroll problem’, not the people who make institutions. We’re pushed aside because the harm to our livelihoods and wellbeing does not register in the metrics used to measure the ‘success’ of the sector. Action makes us visible. External consultants & senior managers hopping between institutions have distorted universities’ priorities. They are changing what a university is and have actively shut out staff from the decision-making processes and information on which governance is based. We reprioritise by retaking the initiative.
November 6, 2025 at 10:49 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
This ballot is a ballot for the soul of the university. A university does not exist without its staff. Yet staff are the ones who are being cut or made to snap under pressure.

Enough.

In fighting for dignity for staff we are fighting for the university.
Join us and vote YES in the national ballot.
a university is nothing without its staff. yet staff is what managers are cutting away with abundance. We are fighting for: fair pay, conditions, jobs fair pay: The erosion of pay is creating an ever more elitist Higher Education sector. Many are already struggling to make ends meet. All sector unions are balloting to ensure all staff can afford working in the university. conditions: Instead of lobbying for a solution to the financial cause of the sector's woes, employers are pushing the problems onto staff. They are cutting jobs, increasing workloads, extending teaching in Summer, worsening terms for colleagues on casualised contracts, and trying to worsen pay, conditions, and pensions. We need employers to respect agreements. jobs: Thoughtless cuts across the sector are jeopardising entire disciplines. The sector's failing financial model, which puts universities in competition with each other, has brought us to a breaking point. Now the fragmented attempts at meeting accounting targets further exacerbate it. We need a national commitment to plan and protect jobs, programmes, and disciplines.
November 6, 2025 at 10:47 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
Yep. The self-censoring and anticipatory compliance by universities, citing ‘commercial interest’ and risk, is part of the curtailing of academic freedom.

It might not be as visible as gag orders or leave a paper trail like law suits, but the effect is the same.

We need a secure funding system.
Others described “soft” or “indirect” pressure being brought to bear, leading academics to self-censor and risk-averse universities to avoid research that could bring them into conflict with China, which controls the flow of students to financially vulnerable UK universities.
November 6, 2025 at 8:06 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
Social media manager accidentally (1) on brand and (2) time for a pink Get The Vote Out Day.

But really, submit your ballots. Staff’s lives and careers have been upended enough by managers and their consultants. It’s time that we regain a say in this sector.
Picture of a hand with a VERY pink sleeve dropping a ballot in a postbox
November 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
Why are YOU voting YES+YES in the current national ballot?

We'd be keen to hear members' voices. Pitch your blogpost here: forms.gle/1a8q7HYF76g2...

#WeAreTheUniversity #UKHE #UCU
Why are you voting yes? Share your reasoning in a blogpost You could share a particular experience that led you to decide you’ve had enough. Or you could share your analysis of the state of the sector. Or you might want to draw colleagues’ attention to the situation in an overlooked part of QMUL. blogposts can be between 200 and 1000 words, anonymous or named.
November 5, 2025 at 3:27 PM
qmucu.bsky.social
Have you found your very pink envelop yet? Read the explanation of why we need to make sure staff doesn’t get ignored in the sector and hit those YES boxes with an X.
Picture of a very pink envelop and a leaflet with information about the UCU ballot
November 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
Oh hi! Intimidation, power games, university’s best interest much lower on the list of priorities than petty fights: sounds familiar.

More of these deep dives that expose the mess that passes for “governance” in #UKHE, please. You could do one of these on each uni: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The review said: "Reports of 'power struggles' between senate and senior management have emerged, with decisions believed to be in the university's best interests allegedly being obstructed by one party or the other." Aberdeen university's senate, external is responsible for all academic matters relating to teaching and research. The report added: "Within senate meetings, some of the consultees reported cases of 'intimidating behaviour', 'a toxic culture' and 'overstretched remit' which has led some members to disengage from senate entirely, as this culture and behaviours have become normalised."
November 4, 2025 at 9:27 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
On our list from its initial incarnation as an email to a journalist in January 2024.

The banks were already knocking for millions then: www.timeshighereducation.com/news/hallam-.... So, yeah, that projected stash on Chinese money not materialising will have played a part.
universities with redundancies and voluntary severance schemes: coventry, aberdeen, sheffield hallam, brighton, oxford brookes, nottingham trent, staffordshire, goldsmiths bad vibes in recent years: birkbeck, kent, and uea
November 4, 2025 at 8:21 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
Can journalists please query the reality of those denials though? Because the emails released are literally about fears about income and about 'conflict of interest'.
The university realised it was coming in for criticism from China as far back as 2022. An internal university email from August of that year, seen by the BBC, said China's foreign ministry had issued a statement "denouncing us as being in the 'disreputable vanguard of anti-China rhetoric'". The email said the university had admitted 500 Chinese students in 2018, but numbers had collapsed in the pandemic and had not bounced back like it had in other markets. It expressed concern that the Chinese government's criticisms could result in a "boycott" by prospective students and recruitment agents. In total, the documents show Sheffield had earned £3.8m in 2021/22 from China and Hong Kong. Later in August 2022 the university's English language testing website used by Chinese students to take tests before coming to Sheffield had been "shut down in China temporarily". Over the next two years the pressure escalated dramatically leading university officials to write in an email in May 2024 that "the continuation of the university's scholarly activity with and in China and Hong Kong has been placed at risk because of the research activities, led by Professor Laura Murphy, in relation to alleged persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China". When Prof Murphy returned from her career break in early 2025, the university told her of its "decision not to continue with her research into supply chains and forced labour in China due to .. the corporate insurance position .. and our duty of care to colleagues working in both China and the UK". Any other work or public engagements outside the university would also have to be checked for "conflict of interest".
November 3, 2025 at 9:45 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
Yes, the law suits are part of it. But the documents released show that the university is acting on the concerns about student recruitment as well -- and the number has dropped from 500 to 73.

It's the university's fears and their acting upon that that's the problem, not only the budget reality.
The university realised it was coming in for criticism from China as far back as 2022. An internal university email from August of that year, seen by the BBC, said China's foreign ministry had issued a statement "denouncing us as being in the 'disreputable vanguard of anti-China rhetoric'". The email said the university had admitted 500 Chinese students in 2018, but numbers had collapsed in the pandemic and had not bounced back like it had in other markets. It expressed concern that the Chinese government's criticisms could result in a "boycott" by prospective students and recruitment agents. In total, the documents show Sheffield had earned £3.8m in 2021/22 from China and Hong Kong. Later in August 2022 the university's English language testing website used by Chinese students to take tests before coming to Sheffield had been "shut down in China temporarily". Over the next two years the pressure escalated dramatically leading university officials to write in an email in May 2024 that "the continuation of the university's scholarly activity with and in China and Hong Kong has been placed at risk because of the research activities, led by Professor Laura Murphy, in relation to alleged persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China".
November 3, 2025 at 9:43 AM
qmucu.bsky.social
Unacceptably useless non-response from the Office For Students.

Can there please be some questions in parliament about how this university and this regulator allow this interference to happen? #UKHE
A spokesperson for the Office for Students, the regulator for the higher education sector, declined to comment on a specific institution, but said: “Suppression of research because of the disapproval of a foreign (or domestic) government is unacceptable in practically any circumstances.”
November 3, 2025 at 8:31 AM