Secondly: "our position is basically the same as UCU's!".

The VC told us that we were basically doing the same thing - it's just that we were unrealistic about how much we could save.

So I suppose our question is: what does "last resort" mean?

Which is more important in your vision of a university? Lining the pockets of the highest earners, or protecting education and preserving access routes for disadvantaged students?

A salary cap of £100k could save us £2m - that's 30+ jobs.

We've been asking for fair pay ratios for years. Even a previous VC, and some of his team, took (voluntary and temporary!) pay cuts over covid.

The VC's response: "nope. Any other questions?"

Firstly, let's talk about their foundational claim that "redundancies are a last resort".

Here's a graph of the highest earners at Essex, according to the latest public data.

The VC has planned to cut 400 jobs, close the Southend campus, demolish the Essex Pathways (foundation year) department, and decimate other departments like language & linguistics, maths & stats and business.

She met us for an all-staff meeting on Thursday. It was... fascinating! Let's fact-check.

Management want to cut 400 jobs, but we know a better university is possible. We've posted our ballots - have you?

In yet more devastating news, the VC has confirmed her plans to cut 80% of academic staff from Essex Pathways, our foundation year department. This would effectively close down all our existing foundation year programmes through the back door.

But it's not a done deal yet. Please share urgently.

Ska försöka få tag i ett ex när jag är i Sverige nästa gång :)

Var kan man få tag i den någonstans? Vore intressant för mig att läsa.

Happy that my first Bluesky contribution is to announce the open access publication of my article "The Danish ‘Coil Campaign’ in #Greenland: Indigenous #Genocide Through Forced Birth Control?"! brill.com/view/journal... #indigenousgenocide #indigenousrights #indigenouswomen #forcedbirthcontrol