Great! Do get in touch with Charlie, or anyone on the committee.

The president of our Unison branch is making a really important point - we're not experts on University mergers. Please keep asking questions and if you can help (with any of the unions at Kent) then let us know - get involved.
We're stronger together.
And take part in the national vote!

Further concerns are being discussed on how students have been left out of planning for a merger. We pride ourselves on being a student centred university but they're currently being overlooked.
Consultants (PWC etc.) do not deal with students, we do.

These are only proposed at the moment - we welcome discussion with our colleagues around each point.

Our proposed charter of key principles for the merger:
No compulsory redundancies
Preservation or improvement of terms
Pension protection
Full staff involvement & transparency
EDI assurances
Fair governance
Monitoring & reviewing
Government & Regulatory Oversight

A very good point has been raised - if we combine lots of systems what then happens with university rankings? We wouldn't have the raw data anymore.
Again - this is amongst our unknowns.

Lots of concerns around what will happen with Professional Services staff who run things like: admissions, HR, student records, payroll, finance, etc.
Unfortunately we still have no idea. PS staff at Kent are still going through further reorganisation and redundancies. There aren't enough staff.

Our UCU Equalities Officer is talking about us demanding a leveling up rather than down in any harmonisation between the two universities.

Our branch president, together with the president of our Unison branch have both made it clear that we don't know very much so far.
This is partly because it's very early days in talks between Kent and Greenwich.

Now it's up to nearly 100 online.
This is such an important issue for ALL staff at Kent which is why this Town Hall was held.

😄 it's fun, isn't it 😬😄

Welcome to our world 😄