Category: Uncategorized
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We need leaders who live our values
A powerful reflection shared this week by a long-standing GCU Professor has struck a chord with many colleagues across the University. Reflecting on recent media coverage, and on almost three decades at Glasgow Caledonian University, he asks a question that goes beyond one news story: what should we expect from those entrusted with leading the…
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Students: support us and send an email the Principal
We are asking students to contact Professor Mairi Watson and ask her to stop the cuts. Please copy and paste this template email, and sign your name before sending it. Feel free to add anything else – what you’re studying, if the cuts have effected you already, etc. Email: VCOffice@gcu.ac.uk Subject: Urgent: Student concerns over proposed…
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We suspended our action. We went to ACAS. Management offered nothing.
At the beginning of the new academic year, GCU’s trade unions made a significant decision. We suspended industrial action. We did so to create the best possible conditions for meaningful negotiations with University management through ACAS. At a point when industrial action could have caused significant disruption at the start of term, the unions chose…
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Tomorrow We Stand Together
Tomorrow, Wednesday 3rd June, UCU members at GCU begin strike action. Staff do not take this action lightly. Over recent months, members have engaged seriously with consultation processes, submitted detailed alternatives, supported colleagues and continued to do their work with professionalism and care throughout an extremely difficult period. Many members believe there is still a…
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When “Necessary” Cuts Suddenly Become Negotiable
Over recent weeks, staff at Glasgow Caledonian University have lived with the possibility of compulsory redundancy hanging over colleagues, teams and services across the institution. Consultation documents presented sweeping proposals as financially necessary and unavoidable. Staff were told significant reductions were required, and that compulsory redundancies were unavoidable. Yet, following sustained pressure from staff and…
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The Marketisation of the Civic University
There is something unsettling about reading a university research restructuring document that repeatedly speaks the language of “financial sustainability”, “income generation”, “strategic alignment” and “performance”, while saying remarkably little about knowledge, intellectual life or the civic purpose of research itself. Like many colleagues across UK higher education, I have now lived through years of restructuring,…
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For the Common Good? Redundancies and the Hollowing Out of Support at GCU
Glasgow Caledonian University is moving towards compulsory redundancies in subjects including economics and history, as well as student support, with staff expected to enter formal selection and scoring processes in the coming weeks. But this is not simply a local staffing dispute. What is happening at GCU reflects a growing national crisis across UK higher…
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Five points for Court to consider
The recognised trade unions have developed a joint response to the University’s consultation on the proposed Targeted Voluntary Redundancy Scheme. As Court members consider the future of the institution, there are several key points that deserve careful attention. 1. GCU is not in an immediate financial crisis GCU currently holds cash reserves of more than…
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A Question for the University for the Common Good
Across the Scottish higher education sector, universities are facing real financial pressures. Changes in international student recruitment, rising costs and wider economic uncertainty have created difficult conditions for many institutions. Several universities have responded by consulting on workforce reductions. However, in recent months a number of institutions have stepped back from the use of compulsory…
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Students raise their voice
Students from across the University have written an open letter expressing their concerns about the proposed redundancies and the potential impact on staff, teaching and the wider university community. The letter reflects the views of students who believe that cuts to staffing would affect the quality of education and the experience of studying at GCU.…
