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First day of 14 days of strike action at Leicester university (Press Release)

Published: 21st February, 2018

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY LEICESTER UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE UNION 21 February 2018 First day of 14 days of strike action at Leicester university Tomorrow hundreds of workers at University of Leicester begin 14 days of strike action, lasting over four weeks. The employees – including most lecturers, professors and other teaching staff, along with many…

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Free University of Leicester – awesome teach-out events!

Published: 19th February, 2018

Check out the fantastic teach-outs we’ll be running on almost every strike afternoon!

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Statement on David Willetts’s appointment to Chancellor

Published: 10th February, 2018

The University of Leicester yesterday announced the appointment of David Willetts as its new Chancellor. The former MP (and now peer) was until 2014 Minister for Science and Universities. He was the minister responsible for the tripling of university tuition fees to their current level of £9000 – an amount he described as “fair and…

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Made in Westminster: the source of the USS ‘crisis’ – and the solution

Published: 9th February, 2018

In this post, Sean Wallis locates three causes of the USS pensions ‘crisis’. First, the 2014 Pensions Act, which allows employers to prioritise their own growth over funding of their pension scheme. Second, quantitative easing, which means that the yield on government securities (which are supposedly less risky than equities) is extremely low — not…

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Leicester University Students’ Union supports strike!

Published: 5th February, 2018

The students’ union at University of Leicester has issued has issued a statement saying it is ‘in full support of UCU… Leicester Students’ Union encourages our members to visit picket lines to show support on strike days and engage with staff on the action that they’re taking. The Students’ Union President, Amy Moran, will continue…

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Support the pensions strikes – defend higher education

Published: 4th February, 2018

Why are we taking action? Staff at universities across the UK voted overwhelmingly for strikes and other forms of industrial action to resist savage – and wholly unnecessary –proposals to cut our pensions. Under the new scheme, our pensions will be gambled on the stock market and the average loss for a new starter is…

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Students should get a refund

Published: 31st January, 2018

Robert Liow, of King’s College London, blames vice-chancellors for the forthcoming pensions strikes: he suggests ‘that it is unfair to expect students to cross picket lines or do anything besides stand with striking academics’ and that ‘unless UUK can take action to resolve the dispute and prevent the strike, universities must do the right thing…

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Decisive support for strike action

Published: 28th January, 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/22/uk-universities-face-disruption-staff-back-industrial-action

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Six of the best… and they’re all men

Published: 14th July, 2017

‘HeForShe’ impact champion approves male-only panel of honorary graduates Welcome to the University of Leicester, where you’ve got more chance of being selected for an honorary degree if you’re a white man with grey hair, than a woman. It certainly provides a neat case study in ‘homosocial reproduction’ for lecturing staff. The news of the…

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When the parasite kills its host, it too dies

Published: 9th June, 2017

provocation: Has the university become a business school, asks Melvyn Palmer. Universities are normally places that we might imagine to be generous exporters of knowledge. Academics work on ideas and then send those ideas into the world by teaching them to students, writing them down in books, or producing techniques or products that become spun…

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