Category: Management
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Glasgow Caledonian Unions welcome management change of heart over student resit ‘fines’
The announcement today that GCU management have withdrawn plans to ‘fine’ students for resits and retaking modules was today welcomed by GCU unions. Speaking on behalf of the University and College Union, branch president Douglas Chalmers said: “We welcome this step back by management on the issue. This really would have hit hard those who…
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Academic Unions at GCU call for a re-think on re-sit ‘fines’
The GCU branches of the University and College Union (UCU) and the Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) both called today for the senior management at Glasgow Caledonian University to reconsider their decision to fine students, who need to undertake re-sits of exams or of modules. From the coming semester, students re-sitting exams will now have…
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A small step for court perhaps ….. but GCU needs a giant leap
It’s far too early to tell, but the recent executive briefing by chair of court Tony Brian (see posting below) may be a helpful acknowledgment that things need improved in the governance of the university. However, it was really too difficult to be certain, given this was a ‘briefing’ with the parameters set in a…
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GCU Court talks to (some) GCU staff – a welcome, but very small step
Some faltering steps which might lead to a more meaningful dialogue between GCU Court and university staff were taken when recently elected Court chair Tony Brian led an ‘Executive Briefing’ on ‘Governance and the role of Court at GCU’. The organisation of the meeting left something to be desired, with only three working days notice…
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Independent review calls for shake up of university governance
An independent review of Higher Education Governance in Scotland today called for fundamental change in the way universities are governed. Amongst its recommendations: Governing bodies need to better show that they observe principles of good governance, regularly reviewing their own performance. Meetings of University Court should normally be held in public. There should be representatives…
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Scottish Press reports criticism of Senior Management at GCU
A hard hitting article by the Herald’s Education reporter Andrew Denholm has brought the shocking results of the recent GCU staff survey into the public’s gaze. Stating that “A survey of staff at Glasgow Caledonian University found just 19% said principal Professor Pamela Gillies and her management ‘lead the university well’ “, Denholm’s report goes…
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GCU Court needs to act NOW on shocking findings of Staff Survey
Fact. The GCU Trade Unions were not consulted about the contents of the survey nor questions within it. Fact. The survey was issued after a long period of senior management minimising real consultation with the unions at GCU. Fact. The result of the survey is a damning indictment of long term inept management at the…
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Why join a union at GCU? – Five months back pay – that’s one reason!
Staff who were successful in the recent promotions round were shocked to find out that guarantees given by former HR head Jim Gibson were being ignored. A letter from Jim to those applying for promotion clearly stated that the implementation date for the new contracts would be August 1st 2011. However, this was not the…
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GCU Unions – Management do not have a monopoly on wisdom
The trade unions at GCU note that Court endorsed the Executive proposals on restructuring at their meeting yesterday. Whilst happy with the removal of the threat of 95 compulsory redundancies, which was made by the Executive on 18th May, the trade unions are disappointed that none of the suggestions and alternatives to the management driven…
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Scottish Parliament hears the case for reform of University Governance
A packed Committee Room 1 of the Scottish Parliament heard calls for bringing democracy to the present system of University Governance – widely seen as ‘not fit for purpose’, in the view of university staff from the majority of Scotland’s universities. MSPs from the governing SNP, and from Labour and the Greens were clearly disturbed…
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