#OurUniOurSay

Motion passed at General Meeting on 18 June 2020:

Lancaster UCU has serious concerns with how the Covid-19 situation is being managed by the university.

The branch notes:

  • The lack of meaningful and timely consultation, on a range of issues such as return to work on campus and the new model of teaching, that have been raised with senior management jointly by campus unions.
  • The plans to prematurely introduce a range of cost savings measures through voluntary options for staff (such as forgoing increments, non-pay rise promotions, and voluntary pay cuts) amidst uncertainty and without adequate modelling.
  • The lack of implementation of the Fixed Term Contracts and Casual Working Policy.

The branch believes that the following principles should be at the core of any proposed mitigation strategy by the university:

  • Consultation: with the campus trade unions in a meaningful and timely manner.
  • Transparency: in financial scenarios and calculations, including conducting and providing modelling of the financial impacts of different cost-saving measures proposed.
  • Equality: impact assessments should be conducted for all measures, and action taken to ensure that they do not disproportionately affect specific staff groups on the basis of protected characteristics, job type or pay grade, or contractual status (e.g. casualised and fixed term staff).

The branch resolves to launch a campaign in order to ensure that:

  • Management is held to account on the above principles
  • Measures to address Covid-19 do not result in overall increases in workload, directly or indirectly, for academic and professional services staff
  • All teaching is properly staffed, recognising that teaching online (with or without some face-to-face teaching) is likely to require a greater workload by all teaching staff, including GTAs and professional staff, in preparation and in delivery.
  • The branch is ready to enter into a dispute should management fail to comply with the principles.

LUCU response to management’s “values survey”

#OurUniOurSay - Statement about the values survey (pdf download)

Lancaster University management has released a survey to help them “identify and develop” the values of our University. The Lancaster University & College Union (UCU) agrees that a change in the values orientation of our University is sorely needed, but it cannot endorse this survey.

Our concerns include:

The survey is weakly designed, and ignores best practices from fundamental values research[1], including widely used survey instruments[2]. As such, the survey’s findings will be of limited use and validity. Moreover, the survey was deployed without consultation with the campus Unions. It represents a “whitewashing” exercise that will not be able to promote the constructive and honest conversations our community needs.

Values must be met with actions, and be reflected in the choices that the University makes[3]This means meaningfully engaging staff in the design of consultation exercises, including campus Unions and researchers with an expertise in studying values, and a commitment to transparent analysis and presentation of results. Most importantly, it requires a willingness to take meaningful actions in response to value-laden issues that have already been identified, including those related to bullying, inequality, lack of financial transparency and undemocratic decision-making.

Unlike the empty, “feel-good” language promoted by the current survey, we believe that a serious discussion about value at Lancaster will consider issues such as:

  • Strengthening democratic decision-making, demonstrating a greater commitment to the principles of transparency, accountability, respect and trust[4]
  • Strong sense of collegiality, caring and solidarity that includes a more genuine concern for the overall wellbeing of our staff, students and community[5]
  • Commitments to public service and public education[6]
  • Commitments to respond to the climate and ecological emergency[7]
  • Demonstrated commitment to the principle of equality, including building an anti-racist community[8]

Critically, many of these values are under attack, and evidence suggests that many of our shared community values are often poorly-aligned with key values and actions promoted by senior management, including those driven by prestige, financial recognition, top-down managerialism and rankings[9]

[1] Maio, G.R., 2010. Mental representations of social values. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 42, pp. 1-43). Academic Press.

[2]Bilsky, W., Janik, M. and Schwartz, S.H., 2011. The structural organization of human values-evidence from three rounds of the European Social Survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(5), pp.759-776.

[3]Harland, T. and Pickering, N., 2010. Values in higher education teaching. Routledge.

[4]Fitzgerald, T., Gunter, H. and White, J. 2012. Hard Labour? Academic Work and the Changing Landscape of Higher Education. Bingley. Emerald Group.

[5]Ashwin, P., 2020. Transforming University Education - a manifesto. London. Bloomsbury.

[6]Nixon, J., 2011. Higher Education and the Public Good. London. Continuum.

[7]https://fundthefuture.org.uk/event/a-green-new-deal-for-colleges-and-universities/

[8] Bhopal, K., 2018. White Privilege: the Myth of a Post-Racial Society. Bristol. Policy Press.

[9]E.g., Ferrario, M.A., Winter, E. 2018. Values tensions in academia: An exploration within the HCI community. http://interactions.acm.org/blog/view/values-tensions-in-academia-an-exploration-within-the-hci-community; Council for the Defense of British Universities, http://cdbu.org.uk/.

Home