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Analysis and Opinion

‘Narrow, unradical, wholly inadequate’: the Gender Pay Gap Report

Published: 28th March, 2018

Last week, University of Leicester employees were the lucky recipients of two reports. One contained the results of the 2017 staff survey – our response is here. The other was the Gender Pay Gap Report. Below, one ‘dejected but unsurprised’ colleague explains why the institution’s proposed strategies for change are ‘narrow, unradical, and wholly inadequate’….

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You broke it, Paul. You own it! The 2017 staff survey

Published: 25th March, 2018

At the end of last week, Paul Boyle wrote to all University of Leicester employees about the results of the 2017 staff survey – conducted in October and November. The timing of the release – Friday afternoon, when many employees’ heads were full of pension-dispute thoughts – led some to speculate that our president and…

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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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Finance Update

Published: 9th June, 2017

This time last year, the University of Leicester’s ‘Leadership Team’ was forecasting a financial deficit for 2016/17 of £12.2 million. This predicted ‘black hole’ was used as a pretext to inflict 150 or more compulsory redundancies on staff. University of Leicester UCU’s analysis (see Trying to Achieve Excellence by Aiming for the Average) debunked the…

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Freedom or Reputation?

Published: 9th June, 2017

Academic freedom is under attack – in Turkey, in Hungary and elsewhere. The University of Leicester’s president and vice-chancellor, in a recent article for Times Higher (How should universities respond when academic freedom is under threat? (13 May), quotes with approval European University Association president Rolf Tarrach: ‘university autonomy and academic freedom are crucial for…

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From FLAME to FAME to… infamy?

Published: 15th February, 2017

A report on the University of Leicester Business School (February 2017)

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‘Transformational Times’ – a guide for students, Oct 2016

Published: 15th October, 2016

Transformational Times – a guide for students, October 2016

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Redundancy Update [October 2016]

Published: 14th October, 2016

A briefing on the campaign against compulsory redundancies

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Redundancy Update [September 2016]

Published: 15th September, 2016

A briefing on the cost of ‘institutional transformation’

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Trying to Achieve Excellence by Aiming for the Average? (‘Crisis? What financial crisis?’)

Published: 1st August, 2016

A briefing on the University of Leicester’s financial position prepared by Leicester UCU Finance Action Group, 1 August 2016. In response to the University Leadership’s Team threatened compulsory redundancies, Leicester UCU conducted its own analyis of the University’s financial situation. It found that the financial ‘crisis’ had in fact been ‘manufactured’. The results were in a…

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