Author: ucuaru

Following a unanimous decision, ARU UCU Branch Executive has presented an Open Letter to Professor Roderick Watkins, VC of ARU, calling for action in relation to the Israel-Palestine war.

The university is called upon to establish joint committees with UCU to:

1. Investigate the ties our university has with companies which facilitate or profit from the war and where appropriate sever such links.
2. Establish ARU scholarships for refugees and displaced people affected by the war.
3. Provide support for academics who have seen their institutions destroyed.

You can read our letter here.

ARU Branch Executive

UCU has just published a report on the precarity of research-only staff in the UK higher education sector. The report is based on freedom of information requests sent to 103 universities and sought to determine the level of support that universities are providing to research-only staff to improve their security of employment.

ARU scored only 34.5/100 in its support for research-only staff.

You can download the entire report here.

We are requesting views and information from our research-only colleagues around their experiences of precarious employment practices, so that we can take this matter forward. Please get in touch by contacting us at arubranch@ucu-branches.org.uk. If you have any other questions, you can also get in touch via the same e-mail.

ARU Branch Executive

UCU is electing a trustee, general secretary and vice-president, and national executive committee members. All UCU members are entitled to vote. Don’t let your vote go to waste – the deadline to vote is March 1^st.

This video explains what the national executive committee is, and why it’s important for members to vote.

More information on the candidates/election further info is available here.

ARU UCU Branch executive

Dear Members,

The local UCU Branch Executive has sent a letter to the VC regarding our demand for a local pay uplift of £7,000, to be paid in recognition of the high costs of living and working in Cambridge and Chelmsford, while in the employment of Anglia Ruskin University.

We first raised this issue at the February meeting of the JCNG (Joint Consultation and Negotiation Group), where senior leaders meet us periodically to discuss and agree matters of mutual concern, then again in the July meeting of the JCNG, and then again in the November meeting. In the last meeting, we were assured that by December 1st, ARU would get back to us with a timetable for discussions. This has, unfortunately, not happened.

As we pointed out at the time, it is better for all concerned that this matter is addressed sooner rather than later and in the spirit of cooperation. While being actively planned for, the alternative of mass campaigns, mobilization, and industrial action is no one’s preferred way forward. We are therefore looking forward to receiving a reply from the VC about the discussions.

You can read our full letter here.

ARU UCU Branch Executive

UCU Branch negotiators met with ARU senior leaders on December 13^th, with the aim of starting to find a way forward to resolving the Official Dispute called by UCU on November 15^th.

By way of reminder, the Official Dispute was declared over ARU’s request for all AHESS staff to vacate the Helmore building on the Cambridge campus before Christmas, in order to make way for the building of the Creative Quarter. This was done without any consultation with staff, students, and external stakeholders; without any prior notice; without legal or equality assessment; without any assessment of the impact on staff or students; etc. You can read about the UCU declaration of the Official Dispute here and about ARU’s consequent postponement of the eviction here.

In their opening statement, our negotiators agreed with ARU that we want to work constructively with ARU on finding a way forward that works for everyone involved. While our misgivings and frustration with how staff and UCU have been treated are genuine, we agree that at this point it is more important to focus on solutions, rather than recriminations. In light of that, our negotiating team set out a number of questions that UCU would like addressed in the coming discussions:

• How does ARU plan to hold consultations with staff, students, and external stakeholders (traders in the surrounding area, the local Diocese, etc.) on the building of the Creative Quarter?

• Can ARU set out a clear plan for conducting equality and other assessments of the impacts upon staff of having to move out of the Helmore building (e.g. the question of sufficient private spaces for office hours, space for staff to store their books and documents, space for staff to wait and work in between classes, the impact on neurodiverse staff)?

• How does ARU plan to compensate groups (staff, students, external stakeholders) that will be severely affected by the construction works (e.g. in terms of noise, pollution, reduced street access, lost office space, etc.)?

• Why have the estimated costs of building the Creative Quarter gone up from £30mn to £60mn and how does ARU plan to cover these costs and keep them under control going forward?

• ARU has been arguing for several years that growth in student numbers has to be one of the University’s goals. However, in the Creative Quarter planning documents submitted to Cambridge City Council, it is noted that ARU was asked whether the Creative Quarter was part of a plan to increase student numbers, to which ARU responded in the negative. Can ARU provide an answer to what is going on?

• Why has ARU barely, if at all, mentioned the Creative Quarter plans in its marketing and PR materials, if it finds its building to be so important for ARU’s future?

• Why has there been no vote in the Senate on the building of the Creative Quarter and does ARU plan to hold such a vote going forward?

You can read our full opening statement here.

We look forward to working with the leadership of the university to find a resolution. It will take time to get there, but we are confident that with goodwill and a commitment to seeking resolution based upon reason we can succeed together. We will keep everyone updated about the progress of the negotiations as they happen.

ARU UCU Branch Executive

Following our announcement of an official dispute (see here), ARU has postponed until further notice its decision to evict staff from the Helmore building. However, the architects of the original decision have neither taken responsibility for it, nor acknowledged our decisive intervention. It fell to the Interim Dean of AHESS to issue an apology and acknowledge the unnecessary distress caused.

The UCU branch executive will update colleagues on the next steps. While the rapid retreat of management from its most ludicrous of decisions is welcome, we await further information as to how the university proposes to rebuild the trust that has been shattered.

ARU UCU Branch Executive

ARU UCU Branch has declared an official dispute with ARU over plans to evict staff from their offices.  Staff and students are deeply distressed.  The consensus is that certain elements within university management have revealed through their actions, including the abject failure to consult, utter contempt for staff and students.

Under the terms of the recognition agreement between the University and UCU, as we are now in official dispute, the status quo prevails. Consequently, the university cannot enforce the eviction of colleagues from their offices unless and until a formal resolution is agreed. UCU members are therefore advised that they are NOT compelled to cooperate with this most unreasonable set of demands outlined by AHESS faculty management.

You can read our full Notice of Official Dispute here.

ARU UCU Branch Executive

The ARU Student Union and the ARU UCU Branch have sent a joint letter to the ARU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Roderick Watkins, asking him to show leadership and join us in a call for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

Thousands of innocents have already lost their lives and thousands more will perish if the fighting does not stop. We believe it is crucial for our university to take a stance in favour of peace and join the international chorus demanding an immediate ceasefire.

You can read our letter in full here.