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qmucu.bsky.social
QM_UCU
@qmucu.bsky.social
Local University & College Union branch at Queen Mary University of London. || Account checked only part-time; allow time for responses or reach us via email. https://qmucu.org/
Pinned
Quick digest of what's happening
⭐️ reorganisation: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...
⭐️ management break-in in union office: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
⭐️ punitive deductions: qmucu.org/2023/09/12/l...
⭐️ legal challenge to deductions: qmucu.org/working-grou...
⭐️ news: qmucu.org/itn/ pic.x.com/Skb3gbpm86
Reposted by QM_UCU
Budget getting you down? Retake the initiative and submit that ballot by 5pm today: qmucu.org/2025/11/21/v... #UKHE
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Budget getting you down? Retake the initiative and submit that ballot by 5pm today: qmucu.org/2025/11/21/v... #UKHE
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 PM
SUBMIT YOUR BALLOT BEFOER 5PM TODAY!

And if you need five good reasons why it's worth digging that pink envelop out of the pile of post and get it in a postbox:
qmucu.org/2025/11/21/v... -- with huge thanks to @ducu.bsky.social
a man in a suit is sitting in the driver 's seat of a car and making a funny face .
ALT: a man in a suit is sitting in the driver 's seat of a car and making a funny face .
media.tenor.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
I think this is key. The majority of the economy, and just as importantly, the social fabric of the community, around a university is based on students and staff.
November 26, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
The whole thing is a catastrophe waiting to happen, and the fact bloody ministers are talking about ‘providers’ ‘exiting the market’ and not wholesale collapse of communities rather suggests they don’t have a fucking clue.
November 26, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
It's also going to be interesting to see what happens to the housing market in the area when landlords realise their HMOs are now largely unwanted
November 26, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
Genuinely worried what happens to students when their uni goes into administration. Do they transfer somewhere else? What about prepaid accommodation, fees already paid? Some students have to be where they are, for family or other reasons. It’s going to be a disaster area.
November 26, 2025 at 10:02 AM
VOTY MCVOTEFACE!

If that hearing yesterday showed anything, it is that the regulator, minister, and managers are not taking the crisis seriously and that staff needs to make it their problem. Let's get that mandate and let's drag this sector out of its impasse.
TODAY IS THE LAST SAFE DAY TO POST YOUR BALLOT!
‼️📮This is your reminder that tomorrow (Wed 26 Nov) is the last day to safely return your postal ballot in the national dispute. 🧵Here’s why this dispute matters for us at Goldsmiths:
November 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
How on earth is the Office for Students still allowed to lord it over the sector, by the way? It's not as if they've in any way provided any evidence of improvements since parliament deemded them not fit for purpose and failing to anticipate the looming crisis in September 2023? #UKHE
November 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Sending much solidarity to the other side of town on a gloriously sunny but chilly picket!
🚨 Day 2 of 4: Staff strike at Imperial.
UCU & Unite are on the picket lines Tues–Fri, followed by two weeks of UCU teaching-targeted action until the end of term.

What began as a pay dispute has become a serious governance crisis.

🧵(1/)
November 26, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
I just can't get over this.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...
November 25, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
Nearly two years of showing the realities of the gambles taken by these managers, ministers, and their consultants on the people who do the work of keeping the sector afloat: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo....

Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
🚨OUT NOW🚨 Are unis about to collapse? 🎓

Ex-minister Jo Johnson, UUK's Vivienne Stern, Public First's Jess Lister and Russell Group's Sarah Stevens join PolHome's @matildamartin.bsky.social & @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the strain on higher education

Listen: podfollow.com/politicshome...
November 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
30% of employers in the sector at risk of "exiting" the sector within 2-3 years. 15% are at immediate risk: www.theguardian.com/education/20...

More than 60% of the employers in the sector have shed collectively thousands of jobs in recent years: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

Does the gov't care?
Fifty higher education providers at risk of exiting market in England, MPs told
Regulator says 24 are at more immediate risk and may have to stop degree courses within next 12 months
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
If journalists & MPs wonder how uni finances are so leaky: have a look at all that public money going to commercial consultancies

Just at QMUL
agencies: www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/recr...
recruitment: www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/recr...
data
ranking www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/paym...
June 19, 2025 at 4:11 PM
oh they're going to exit in an appropriately polite way, are they? Well, that puts every staff member, student & local business owner at ease. We couldn't possibly have some *disorderly* collapse of an institution that provides higher education, jobs, and an anchor for the local community, could we?
“exiting the market”
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
We remember a time when we were called doomthinkers for mentioning that the collapse of a university would be bad in and of itself, and additionally have bad knock-on effects.

Now they're talking about 50, and just doing it with that euphemism.

Time for a dispute with the Secretary of State? #UKHE
November 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
Dave watched this government Education Committee meeting so you didn’t have to. But you do have to read his summary (if you have any interest in the future of HE)
"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.

per this morning's education committee.
November 25, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
Excellent public service from Dave here - live-tweeting the Education Committee hearings on what to expect (nothing good) in the UK university sector.
"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.

per this morning's education committee.
November 25, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
‼️📮This is your reminder that tomorrow (Wed 26 Nov) is the last day to safely return your postal ballot in the national dispute. 🧵Here’s why this dispute matters for us at Goldsmiths:
November 25, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
This is what solidarity looks like.

Say it with me- We. Are. The. University.

And we will NOT stop fighting until this administration listens to ALL of us. Staff, Students, and Community are united!

#StopTheCuts #SaveHE #UniversityOfNOttingham #UniversityOfLittleEngland
November 25, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
Staff are united against course closures.
Students are united against course closures.
Community members are united against course closures.

When will this university listen?
Nottinghamshire MPs have written to @uniofnottingham.bsky.social, urging the university to reconsider proposed course suspensions and potential closures, which would significantly impact staff, students, and our wider city and county.
November 25, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Reposted by QM_UCU
qmucu.org/qmul-transfo...

This page is going to be ridiculously long soon.
UK HE shrinking
a live page of all the redundancies and restructures happening across UK Higher Education. Page is updated regularly.
qmucu.org
November 24, 2025 at 11:35 AM
November 24, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by QM_UCU
General Strike 100

National museums, libraries, archives, community groups, and individuals across the UK are marking the centenary of the 1926 General Strike.

All the details here: generalstrike100.com #GeneralStrike100
November 24, 2025 at 1:41 PM
🤩

Now there's a thought....
General Strike 100

National museums, libraries, archives, community groups, and individuals across the UK are marking the centenary of the 1926 General Strike.

All the details here: generalstrike100.com #GeneralStrike100
November 24, 2025 at 6:20 PM