The Western Mail and Wales Online have covered the continuing financial decline of Welsh Universities in an in-depth piece looking at latest HEFCW stats. Cardiff UCU were quoted, and we highlighted our consistent and evidence-based concerns over levels of financialised debt, and the prioritisation of shiny buildings over staff and human resources. If the Uni hadn’t been so keen to get us into huge debt for these mega-building projects, it’d be much more able to deal with (often predictable) current and future deficits. Read it online.
Author Archives: cardiff
Cardiff UCU New Executive Committee 2019/20
We’ve now elected our new executive committee for the year 2019-20, and we’re again pleased to see such a big group of committed, skilled, and knowledgeable members stepping up to steer our branch. The new committee will take up office at the beginning of the next academic year.There’s still one vacancy for Vice-President, which we’d love to fill, ideally with a female member to help us counter the current gender imbalance on the committee.
If you’d like to put yourself forward, or find out more, then drop into the office, or email ucu@cardiff.ac.uk.
We’re only ever effective because of the commitment of local activists willing to put in the hours to act on everyone’s behalf.
President
Ryan Prout
Vice-president
Paul Brennan
Vice-president
VACANT
Chair
Chris Graves
Secretary
Simon Wood
Treasurer
Phil Parkes
Membership and recruitment secretary
Luzia Dominguez
Equality and diversity officer
Abyd Quinn-Aziz
Anti-casualisation officer
Renata Medeiros Mirra & Rowan Campbell (job share)
Health & safety officer
Andy Skyrme
Learning representative
Josh Robinson
Pensions officer
Dave Atkins
Environmental officer
Paul Rock
Media and communications officer
Andy Williams
Staff wellbeing officer
Nick Russell
Disability representative
Irina Erchova
LGBT Officer
Clea Rees
Ordinary members
Colin Berry
Marc Bühner
Adam Errington
Michelle Huws-Thomas
Esther Muddiman
Clea Rees
Lucy Riglin
Steven Stanley
Martin Weinel
Workload and its effects
This week was the anniversary of the death of our colleague Malcolm Anderson, who sadly took his own life on 19th February 2018. Many of you will have seen the BBC’s report into workload and stress that was screened on Wednesday night. It includes a moving interview with Malcolm’s widow, who describes the impossible workload that Malcolm was trying to manage, and how it pushed him too far.
For those who have not seen it, the report is available on the BBC’s website and on YouTube.
Staff in Cardiff Business School (CARBS), where Malcolm worked, continue to fight against unmanageable workloads and in November carried out a survey of academic staff in CARBS whose workload is allocated through the Workload Allocation Model. The survey was designed by the CARBS Workload Group and the UCU Workload Health & Safety team and provides evidence requested by the University Workload Governance Group to support staff claims of excessive work demands.
The report of its findings is now available:
Re-Thinking the University: Past, Present, and Possible Futures
A group of CU academics from various disciplines has recently formed a new initiative “Re-Thinking the University: Past, Present, and Possible Futures”. The aim of the initiative is to increase the understanding of CU governance structures and to provide a platform to reflect on current governance practices at our university.
For the Spring Semester 2019, the group has organised a seminar series to provide historic and contemporary perspectives on how universities are run. The series will be kicked off by Dr Eric Lybeck (University of Manchester) in A Tale of Two Universities: Critical & Institutional Perspectives on the Civic University on Thursday 28 February 2019, 1-2 pm, Beverton Lecture Theatre, Main Building.
The seminar series is organised independently by CU academics, supported by UCU. For further information on this initiative can be found on the Rethinking the University website.
Vacancy at UCU Wales
The UCU Wales office is currently recruiting for a Policy and Communications Officer. More details are on the national UCU website. The closing date is 11th March at 10 am.
Resisting Transforming Cardiff
On Wednesday February 13th, representatives of Cardiff UCU Branch Committee and the other campus unions met with the Vice-Chancellor and representatives from UEB and HR to discuss the paper that was recently approved by Council and published.
The Vice-Chancellor conveyed that all the pillars of the “Transforming Cardiff”/”Trawsffurfio Caerdydd” programme remain at the ideas stage, and offered to consult further before more detailed proposals are put to Council.
UCU representatives are holding meetings in various Schools and Departments in order to register members’ questions and concerns and we encourage members to get in touch with your concerns.
We also encourage members to attend the events being held with our Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor on Monday and Tuesday of next week. It is particularly important that professional services colleagues and postgraduate student members attend these events and pose questions for our leaders, and express their concerns. Information about the meetings can be found here on the intranet.
Prior to attending these events, and to inform any questions you might ask, we recommend you read the Vice-Chancellor’s email and the Transforming Cardiff Proposal to Council alongside the FAQ we have prepared relating to our two ballots.
Do you want to help make the university a better place to work and study?
This is your last chance to vote in our two ballots – the local ballot defending against the threat of compulsory redundancies arising from the Transforming Cardiff scheme, and the national ballot demanding a 7.5% pay rise (or £1,500 per year, whichever is greater), that the gender pay gap is closed by 2020, and that the problems of excessive workloads and casual contracts are urgently addressed nationally. Your ballot papers will need to arrive in the post with UCU before 12 noon on Friday 22nd February. Return your ballot papers NOW!
- If you have lost or not received your national ballot, there is still time to request a new one now, which you will need to post as soon as you receive it.
- If you have lost or not received your local ballot, please request one immediately from the UCU Wales Office, providing your membership number and date of birth.
- If you are a postgraduate student member and you work for the University in any capacity, teaching or doing research, you are eligible to vote and should have received your ballots. If you have not received your ballots, you may need to change your membership from ‘postgraduate’ (student) member to ‘standard free’ (or ‘full free’) via My UCU … please do this urgently!
Withdrawal from the Gold Award assessment
The Cardiff UCU Branch Executive Committee has made a decision to withdraw from any further participation in the University’s re-application for the Corporate Health Standard Gold award because it does not believe that there has been sufficient progress on the substantive issues of workload stress and bullying. On the contrary, UCU believes that these very serious threats to the health and safety of University staff will worsen as a consequence of the intended reduction in staff numbers from the current Voluntary Severance Scheme and the recent threat of compulsory redundancies.
From UCU’s conversation with Ava Fine, who leads the assessment process, we understand that Cardiff University is likely still to be awarded the Gold Standard due to the prescriptive nature of the process but that recommendations based on our feedback will be included in their report.
Anti-precarity survey
The anti-precarity working group is collecting evidence to establish the nature and extend of the issues faced by our members in precarious work. Please help by completing our survey, which closes tomorrow, Friday February 15th.
Elections for UCU Vice-President (HE)
On Monday, Feb 18, we are hosting a hustings for candidates running for Vice-President (HE) of UK UCU: the successful candidate will serve as vice-president for a year, and then a further year as president, the highest lay office within our union.
We have invited all three candidates: Vicky Blake, Jo McNeill and Adam Ozanne, and Vicky and Jo will be joining us to set out their visions for UCU, and also to offer support for our local campaigns. Come and meet and question them!
Monday Feb 18, 4pm, Beverton Lecture Theatre, Main Building. All UCU members are welcome.
You can find the candidates’ election addresses on the UCU website.