Tuesday 15-04-2025 - 14:15

Durham UCU has announced strike action, and you can read its reasoning and decisions on its website. Students are entitled to know what this means for us, and how your students’ union will respond. For updates, FAQS and resources, visit: UCU Industrial Action @ Durham SU.
 
We set out our position on cuts last term. That position remains the same. The higher education system is broken. The model of funding and historic financial decisions locally means that cuts are inevitable. We hate that it has come to this, and we understand why UCU has decided to take industrial action as a result. As a collectivist organisation that cares about the staff on our campus, we support them and their right to strike. 
 
We’ll be asking both sides to clearly communicate their goals, plans and intent to students. The Vice-Chancellor, as head of the institution, has additional responsibility to explain her response to UCU’s campaign, and I’ll be asking her: 

• Could she give UCU access to the financial information it’s asked for to help them understand the case she’s making for ‘unavoidable’ cuts, which are what has led to UCU's member’s decision to strike and to allow UCU to make its own case contesting what is deemed 'unavoidable'. 
• What steps are being taken to ensure cuts and 'cost savings' do not fall exclusively on the lowest paid staff, who are often those supporting students’ day-to-day, or even student staff (including postgraduates) themselves, and to ensure that there is not an imbalance between management and student-facing staff? 
• Will she share her plans to make sure that the end of term for students, and assessment, isn’t negatively impacted by either industrial action or the impact of cuts? 
• What will the University do with money not paid in wages during the strikes? Previously, this money has been put into student hardship funds, the same should happen again, if it is not given to striking staff. 

Durham SU will update its industrial action pages on our website ahead of the strike as more information and questions from students come through, to make sure that we have the most current information on the dispute, and your rights during industrial action.