Category: Elections

Resist Privatisation and Marketisation

Higher education should be publicly funded, publicly owned, accessible to everyone and free at the point of use.

The university is a place where minds are developed through freedom of speech, subject choice and respect for diversity. True collegiate governance and democratic accountability for the public good.

We have to stand up for our values and resist marketisation and privatisation. Our universities are not treasure chests to be plundered by multinationals or other opportunists, or to be subject driven by employers, nor any restrictions on research (REF).

Crisis

Pensions, pay and terms of condition are threatened. We will not allow the government to make us pay for an economic crisis we did not create. We need to show the government is wrong on all its assertions. We deserve decent pay, pensions and working conditions.

Overwork, casualisaton of contracts and bullying all need to be challenged. Protection of the post 92 contract and decent workloads for all lecturers, researchers, academic related and protection for hourly paid staff.

We know when cuts bite, equality issues are left behind at great speed. There are many universities that need to progress on EPA’s, maternity schemes, support for members with disabilities, impact assessments and anti-bullying.

Unions should be member led – it is a basic union principle. Members deserve nothing less. Values based on collectiveness, unity, aspiration and organisation. UCU can grow from strength to strength by:

Developing work nationally, regionally and locally with our students, other education trade unions, the TUC, Trade Union councils, the occupations, anti-cuts and other community groups.

A greater visibility on the value of education, for the good of society.

Encourage new and younger members to get involved in UCU.

Listening to and mobilising UCU members.

Biographical information including service to the union

I work full time as a senior lecturer at Northumbria University, teaching Midwifery, public health and other health areas.
I am a member of the Northumbria equality sub-committee. I have been an active trade unionist most of my working life. After transferring from a teaching position in the NHS in 1994, I have been:

1994 – Department and school rep l 2004 – Branch officer;

2007-11 Secretary of the Northern Region HEC;

2007–11 Member of the standing women’s committee

2007-11 delegate to the women’s’ TUC conference and UCU national congress;

2007– National health educators group member

2007– Northern Region TUC council member l 2008 – Northern Region Secretary

2010-11 Vice Chair of the women’s standing committee

(2010) Delegate to the TUC conference

2011– NEC member, member of the Education Committee and vice chair of the national Equality Committee

UCU Left member

For the North East HE seat please vote;

Liz Lawrence 1
Gavin Reid 2
Veronica Killen 3
Jeff Fowler 4
Leaflet downloads are available from here.

STV Voting system

To maximise votes for progressive candidates we ask you to do the following:

Please use your votes to first endorse all UCU Left candidates and only after that use lower preferences for other progressive candidates in each relevant list;

and

Give your highest preferences in the UK-Elected list to UCU Left candidate(s) from your region

 

Elections run from 6 February to 1 March

The Government has embarked on a savage process of privatising our universities. The scandals that have rocked the American for-profit sector, one that spends more on advertising than it does on staff, appear only to spur Willetts on in his race to the bottom.

The current period will therefore define what our union is about and how it operates – roll over and invest in ‘member services’ or use our available resources to fight back where we can. We must defend our pensions, pay and working conditions across the full spectrum of our membership.

Focus

t would be a mistake to focus exclusively on pensions; this will likely lead to defeat over the Government white paper.

Furthermore, the HE sector has suffered the worst pay settlements in the whole of the public sector during the current recession.

The fact that since 2004 we have had to take industrial action to secure every pay increase, when this has not happened in much of the rest of the economy, suggests a collective failure of the Vice-Chancellors towards their staff, this we must reverse.

Pillars

Universities must be the pillars of any democratic society, yet many VCs are now engaged in shedding jobs even resorting to compulsory redundancy.

There is further strong evidence that the UK is falling behind other European countries in its obligations to defend academic freedom.

I believe UCU should be campaigning for the reintroduction of tenure and collegial governance structures as defined by UNESCO. Academic tenure is the only defence against closure and redundancy.

Business

As our universities are turned into businesses and run on traditional business lines, they are being set up to fail like businesses.

The UCU must be at the forefront of promoting a new vision for higher education – to reclaim our universities from the Tories.

Biographical information including service to the union

I first joined AUT in 1996. Over the past decade I have been Joint Secretary, twice Vice-President, President, Past President, and I am currently again President of the University of Leeds LA.

I have been a member of the UCU National Executive Committee since 2007
Chair, Education Committee (2010, 2011) l Vice-Chair, Education Committee (2007-09)

Vice-Chair Pre-92, Higher Education Committee (2010)

National pay negotiator (2009-present) l Member of the Legal Support Review Panel (2009, 2011)

I am a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds. Currently, I am Director of Student Education in the School of Chemistry. I have research interests in femtosecond spectroscopy and biophysical chemistry.

I am or have recently been an elected member of the University Senate, Learning & Teaching Board and Council.

I am a member of UCU Left and not of any political party.

North East (HE) Vote:

Elizabeth Lawrence 1
Gavin Reid 2
Veronica Killen 3
Jeff Fowler 4

Leaflet downloads are available from here.

STV Voting system

To maximise votes for progressive candidates we ask you to do the following:

Please use your votes to first endorse all UCU Left candidates and only after that use lower preferences for other progressive candidates in each relevant list;

and

Give your highest preferences in the UK-Elected list to UCU Left candidate(s) from your region

 

Elections run from 6 February to 1 March

Defend Education, Jobs and Pensions.

I have worked at the University of Brighton for 12 years, firstly as an HPL and then in a permanent post. Currently I am a Principal Lecturer in Linguistics and Philosophy of Language.

In my UCU branch, I have been an Equal Opps Officer and Membership Secretary, and Secretary of the UCU Coordinating Committee. I am a delegate to the Southern and Eastern Regional Trade Union Council (SERTUC).

My experience as an hourly paid lecturer was similar to many on casual contracts which did not protect against disproportionate workloads, imbalance of teaching and research hours, lack of pensions’ contributions, pressure to teach more for less, all of which we must continue to resist and negotiate greater contractual protection for every single member in our branches where that protection still does not exist.

Ethos

We face unprecedented attacks on university education. Employers are turning Universities into market-led, privatised companies whose ethos is that of profit and competition.

Their strategy is to cut courses and provision which do not fit into the government’s market priorities – the main aim of the Higher Education White paper, which says nothing about improving teaching experience and empowering generations of students to come. This will jeopardise the existence of some HE institutions.

Our pensions and jobs are under threat. The changes the government wants to introduce to pensions are not necessary; pension schemes are not facing financial burden – the changes are about shifting this burden to public sector staff.

This government’s strategy is closely linked to the strategy for the privatisation of higher education: both are aimed at cutting public provision, both open up opportunities for for-profit companies and the financial sector and both work towards changing the tradition of social responsibility to individualism and commercialisation of education sector and pensions’ provision.

Our students are also under attack: higher tuition fees will prevent many from staying on in education, and those who do will be faced with a lifetime of debt.

Staff are under continuous and increased pressure. In many institutions intensified workloads and contact hours mean less time for research, increased stress levels and pressure on staff to sell courses, shifting the emphasis therefore from teaching and research to marketing.

The UCU must therefore fight to defend every single job, and defend education, pensions, pay and conditions.

That is why those we elect as reps should be accountable to every member in our branches. We need democratic and member-led local branches to ensure the implementation of Congress decisions by elected officers of the NEC.

We must link our fight to defend pensions and pay with a fight to defend education and make common cause with our students against escalating student debt. The UCU must play a pivotal role in the campaign against the White Paper.

We must fight for free education and an education system open to all. Central to that is our vigorous defence of academic freedom, under threat like never before.

That means we need nationally supported campaigns to resist job losses, cuts to courses and increased workloads. We need to campaign for fair working conditions for all staff, including hourly paid.

I am a convenor of the Defend The Right To Protest Campaign, to which UCU affiliated at Congress 2011; also a member of Unite Against Fascism and the UCU Left.

Leaflet downloads are available from here.

STV Voting system

To maximise votes for progressive candidates we ask you to do the following:

Please use your votes to first endorse all UCU Left candidates and only after that use lower preferences for other progressive candidates in each relevant list;

and

Give your highest preferences in the UK-Elected list to UCU Left candidate(s) from your region

 

Elections run from 6 February to 1 March