Industrial Action Update: Information for all students

Nationally, the Universities and College Union (UCU) that represents some academic and academic-related staff at the University has announced its intention to hold three days of strike action in December along with up to six months of continuous action short of a strike (ASOS) in the form of working to contract as follows:

• The three days of strikes will take place on Wednesday 1, Thursday 2 and Friday 3 December 2021
• The action short of a strike will run until 3 May 2022 and will take the form of staff working their contracted hours and duties and not volunteering for additional duties.

We understand that the prospect of industrial action might cause you some concern and we would like to reassure you that we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact of any strike action on you and your studies. Our priority will be to ensure students and staff can continue to fully engage in campus life throughout any period of industrial action, including academic, social and other activities. We will take concerted action to minimise the impact on student learning, outcomes and experience and we are planning to do everything we can to monitor the situation and put mitigations in place.

The most obvious and immediate impact upon some of you, on some courses, will potentially be the cancelling of timetabled sessions on the relevant strike dates. Academic staff who strike do not have to inform the University in advance that they are striking and so we will not always be able to inform you that this is going to happen.  We expect that the vast majority of timetabled sessions will continue as normal and many students will see no disruption to their studies, however the level of impact will vary for different courses and Schools.

We will make every reasonable effort to contact students in advance about any changes or cancellations and, where possible, this will be communicated to you via your School/Department. Your School/Department will make every effort to make alternative arrangements for any cancelled events, including lectures, seminars, individual appointments, lab sessions etc. This might include scheduling additional sessions at other times and making supporting materials available that you can review through Canvas. This will help to ensure that you do not miss any of the essential content for your course. Please check your University emails frequently, and via Canvas, for further updates.

We have also published some Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) on our webpages.

We have also provided some further information to the Guild of Students which is published on their webpages to inform the current referendum.  In this referendum, the Guild is asking students to vote to determine whether the Guild should support industrial action by UCU. You can find these further details and information about the referendum on the Guild of Students website.