(And for the eagle-eyed, apologies for the slightly premature upgrading of my role title in the caption to this video. I’m not yet in the VP role, which I won’t formally take until the end of May, but already getting ready to hit the ground running!)
Took a day out of my trip back home to drop in on our sibling union the NTEU for a chat.
As employers in the UK and Australia share policies, personnel and overpaid consultants, trade unions too need to be talking across borders and systems so we can better defend workers and public education.
Will you join us in fighting to protect trans workers?
1. Write to your MP about the workplace regs: actionnetwork.org/letters/fix-...
2. Let us know if your employer has changed their approach to trans inclusion: form.typeform.com/to/uycRij58
This Friday and Saturday (UK time) we'll be hosting a public symposium on "Global Samurai" at SOAS University of London, as part of the programme of the British Museum exhibition "Samurai"
Event page, including programme and registration information: www.britishmuseum.org/events/globa...
Saturday 11th 9:30 am Colchester
Staff and students will protest at Essex University’s open day on 11 April against job cuts, course closures, and plans to shut the Southend campus.
Education is on the line.
Stand with them. Get down
NTEU president Alison Barnes and UCU vice president for higher education (elect) Mark Pendleton stand on a footpath outside the NTEU headquarters in Melbourne.
Great to meet with @alisonbarnes.bsky.social and
@nteunion.bsky.social colleagues to take some lessons from their governance campaigns back to @ucu.org.uk
Plenty of opportunities for future cross-border collaboration too!
Looking forward to hitting the ground running as #ucu VP next month.
You can't "temper" so fundamentally toxic proposals, both for asylum and immigration in general. Labour's "reform's" are utterly inhumane, as well as unworkable, costly and counterproductive. They need scrapping entirely, Mahmood fired, and a complete rethink.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Today is Trans Day of Visibility! To mark this, we will do a series of posts boosting trans solidarity, activism and research initiatives (plus cute merch for fundraising purposes).
Today: the Trans, Non-Binary & Gender-Diverse Priority Setting Partnership survey: wp.lancs.ac.uk/transadultsp...
❤️🏳️⚧️
A segment of Archie Moore’s kith and kin that shows chalk genealogical lines of his ancestors, reflecting the complexities of kinship relationships, and a combination of known people, terms drawn from archival sources and speculative ancestral names.
Archie Moore’s kith and kin: Documents of 557 inquests into Aboriginal deaths in custody between 1991 and 2023 float on a black table over a pool of water. The black walls around the room are cover in intricate drawings in chalk reflecting the genealogies of the artist over tens of thousands of years of ancestors.
I really wanted to see Archie Moore’s kith and kin when it was at the Venice biennale (and won) but couldn’t get there.
So I was delighted to find it at GOMA while I’m in Brisbane.
Truly monumental work about kinship, time, and the ongoing violence of colonialism.
Really impressive stuff by the NTEU to build a sustained campaign and force a public conversation on university governance and corporatization.
While I’m in Australia visiting family, I’ll be meeting with NTEU colleagues next week to start a conversation about what we in @ucu.org.uk can learn.
Can we have one of these inquiries here, please? #UKHE is also leading a stupid amount of money from the public institutions to these leechy private businesses. And yes, the lack of accountability is a key part of the issue about that.
Northumbria management says it needs to cut £25m. But it spent £39.6m on capital projects last year an eightfold increase in four years.
Staff are being asked to pay for that gamble with their pensions.
Rally tomorrow: Newcastle Civic Centre, 12.30pm.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1444...
Timothy Snyder: Do not obey in advance.
UK HE: how can we obey in advance *better*?
Windsor Forest Colleges Group staff are on the picket line today and they’re not going anywhere until management makes a fair offer.
£500 doesn’t cut it when your own employer body recommends 4%. Our members deserve better. ✊
During our demonstration against the planned 400 job cuts on Monday, Essex UCU reps were invited to meet with three members of the University Council.
This is the first time we'd been able to meet with key decision-makers - all thanks to the pressure we've been putting on management.
⬇️ Summary:
Sending full solidarity to everyone taking strike action at Windsor Forest College. The pay offer from management is an insult, especially after the principal and SMT award themselves a large pay rise! Diabolical behaviour!
Suella Braverman: You don’t need to bring your husband and three children to do a degree in Media Studies. Universities need to stop selling immigration instead of education. Alaa from Gaza: I have received an unconditional offer to study a Master by Research in Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, beginning in September 2026. This opportunity is more than an academic milestone for me; it is a lifeline for my family.
a refugee and genocide survivor is about to start her Master's at Goldsmith and this is the response from a senior politician. what a disgrace.
Though I'm still feeling the impact of 16 days strike action +3 weeks lockout, I've just posted my ballot in our dispute @sheffielducu.bsky.social We can't let management get away with strike breaking tactics and unnecessary attacks on the learning/working conditions of staff and students!
ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/campaigns/st... This financial report shows that redundancies are not made because of financial troubles but to pursue the idea of a smaller & weaker university. The reason? Look at the US. For heaven's sake - VOTE for strike action! @ucu.org.uk @sheffielducu.bsky.social
A picket line outside Heriot-Watt University. Around 60 people are gathered with various banners and placards and very bright pink UCU hats.
Absolutely fantastic to see such a massive turnout for @hwucu.bsky.social's first day of strike action. An excellent showing from our members (and lots of messages of support from those striking from home!) and a wonderful number of supporters too!
The MA in Gender & Sexuality at the University of Birmingham is a rare thing: a chance to explore cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in queer, trans, feminist, and gender studies, with a practical placement built-in. #queerhistory #womenshistory
www.birmingham.ac.uk/study/postgr....
"I’m very worried about what is being destroyed. We’re all extremely worried, because what we’re seeing is the ad hoc closure and drastic cutting of many, many departments across the country."
Historian Lyndal Roper in today's THE: bit.ly/4sqsfJ2 #Skystorians 1/2
Staff at four Scottish universities to go on strike amid job cuts dispute #SaveHE #StopTheCuts www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottis...
Many congratulations to Lyndal Roper for being awarded the 2026 Holberg Prize!
Lyndal is a longstanding HWJ editor and author of the latest article in our Celebrating HWJ 100 series.
'The surging number of redundancies in UK higher education could undermine entire research fields as networks of collaborators disappear, according to an academic whose project fell through when a colleague’s job at another institution was put at risk.' 1/2
Pleased to get a double acceptance on @eajs.eu panel proposals today - guess I have to go now!
Looking forward to seeing many old friends and new in Poznań in August!
Also thrilled that this means the cover of HWJ 100 features the gorgeous Wollemi pine.
Read on to why I think we can learn so much from this remarkable way of being.
If you enjoy that, you can also read even more by picking up my book Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction.
Our #SaveHE #StopTheCuts call on the front of today’s Herald
Whose voices count in the modern history of distinction?
@sadiahqureshi.bsky.social considers how much historians can learn by paying attention to the remarkable lives of plants.
Tomorrow Wes Streeting will remove trans minors ability to access, and doctors to prescribe, cross-sex hormones.
Try as it might Labour will never eradicate trans people. They cannot, and should not, change who they are. All Labour will do is make trans lives harder - with more harm and more death.
