Motions

General Information

Please be aware of the following timelines when submitting motions.

Motions to be submitted 14 days before a branch meeting.

Amendments to be submitted at least 7 days before a branch meeting.

Motions and amendments to be sent to the branch secretary, Ian Kinane (ian.kinane@roehampton.ac.uk) and copied to the branch email account (ucu@roehampton.ac.uk).

For any members who are new to writing a motion, here are some general guidelines. How to draft a Motion courtesy of Jan Koene. Any questions, please contact our branch secretary.

Below is a list of recent motions adopted by the UCU University of Roehampton branch:

 

Meeting date: 28 June 2022

Motion – UCU demonstration support

We call on UCU nationally to support a demonstration on 9th July at Roehampton against Fire and Rehire and compulsory redundancies. No to cuts in courses.

CARRIED

 

Meeting date: 21 June 2022

Motion – Solidarity with RMT

This branch will send a letter of solidarity in support of the current RMT dispute.

CARRIED

 

Meeting date: 13 June 2022

Motion 1 – Declaration of a Trade Dispute

This branch notes

1. Management’s proposal to make 226 academics redundant and then rehire some for very similar, if not identical, posts

2. The proposal to close many key programmes in favour of untested and under researched ‘vocational and technical’ ones

3. Management’s failure to manage the finances of the University or to plan for change

4. That these proposals will destroy the University’s commitment to critical enquiry and to the education of working-class, minority-ethnic and first-generation students

5. Management’s refusal to engage in meaningful consultation

This branch therefore resolves:

1. to declare a trade dispute

2. to conduct a ballot over industrial action

3. to propose that UCU recognises this dispute as one of National Significance

CARRIED (unanimously)

 

Motion 2 – Vote of No Confidence in the Vice Chancellor, the Senior Management Team and the Director of HR 

This branch notes:

  1. the recent announcement by the Vice Chancellor that massive job cuts will be implemented at the University and particularly in the Schools of Arts, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology, and Life and Health Sciences, with the closure of programmes and the shameful practice of fire-and-rehire of academic staff. This will be detrimental to academic staff as well as students from our local area, especially BAME students, for whom Roehampton provided an opportunity to access higher education.
  1. that the timing of the announcement and the strategically restrictive timeframe employed appear to maximise disruption and damage for staff, and for current and prospective students, in what can only be seen as evidence of incompetence, lack of planning, lack of understanding of how university teaching and research work, and lack of care for students and staff.

It is noteworthy that:

  • The ideas behind the restructuring and the new proposed programmes have not been developed in consultation with academics who understand the disciplinary areas, to ensure that the proposed transitions are feasible with the set up and resources available at the university of Roehampton (e.g., laboratory and studio spaces).
  • There is no evidence of any market research that supports the hope that the new directions proposed for several programmes are likely to recruit better and lead to better graduate outcomes.
  • Many programmes were engaged in revalidation this year, but senior management did not make use of these opportunities to harvest academic specialist knowledge to focus the direction of these programmes as proposed in the business cases. Had this happened, there would already be feasible plans on how to achieve the proposed change of direction, and it could have been achieved with much less disruption to staff and students. An offer of voluntary severance package earlier in the year would have ensured that members of staff who would not fit in this proposed new vision could leave without major disruption.
  • The timing of the consultation, redundancies and rehiring means that no plans can be made for the academic year starting in September, as it will only become clear in late August which members of staff will be rehired. Last minute appointments of casual teaching staff will be required in September to teach continuing programmes, leading to high uncertainty and stress for remaining staff and students, exploitative contracts used on a large scale, and disruption of teaching due to the very limited time available for new staff to prepare lectures.
  • Management is using “low recruitment” as a reason for programme closures, but the data show that a main cause of this is the slowness and inefficiency of the applications/admissions process, which leads to many prospective students accepting offers at other universities due to the lack of response from Roehampton, thus resulting in low recruitment for some programmes.
  1. that the current consultation is not meaningful due to essential information not being provided to staff and to UCU, further invalidating the process and revealing the lack of preparation and planning on the part of senior management and HR. The branch underlines that the Vice-Chancellor and his senior management team, aided by the HR Director, are showing wilful disregard for academic staff by not providing enough information and time for important life decisions to be made.

The branch understands that:

  1. The decision for redundancies was taken a long time ago as part of a change of focus towards vocational training and away from critical scholarship
  2. Academic staff members are being forced to leave their jobs or to compete with colleagues for fewer “new” roles which are in essence, no different from their current roles.
  3. The remaining academic staff will have to handle even more unreasonable workloads, as the same work will be done by fewer staff resulting in a negative impact on staff well-being.
  4. Student experience will suffer and student wellbeing will be at risk, fewer overworked academics will be unable to provide the standard of education and pastoral care that our students deserve.
  5. Management has provided vague and contradictory information on the future of research, with a strong suggestion that time for research will be further limited. Academics have not been given the necessary facts and commitments regarding research to make an informed decision to apply for the available roles.

This branch believes that the Vice-Chancellor and his senior management team are not serving the best interests of staff and students, but are creating enormous reputational damage to the University and removing opportunities for current and future students, especially working-class students, without evidence that supports the need for such drastic and destructive measures and without a well-planned strategy.

Therefore, this branch calls for

  1. A vote of no confidence in the following people:

a) The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Jean-Noël Ezingeard, for leading this operation of mass redundancies and attempting to turn the University of Roehampton into a ‘vocational training college.’

b) The Senior Management team:

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost, Prof Anna Gough-Yates,

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Richard Keogh,

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education, Steven Driver,

Director of Finance, Baljit Kaur

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Academic Development and Sustainability, Laura Peters

Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor, Academic Portfolio Development, Peter Flew

Chief Operating Officer, Tom Rowson

University Secretary, George Turner

Director of Strategy and External Relations, Liam Hurley

Academic Registrar, Ranjit Sahota

for their complicity, for aiding and abetting, supporting or enabling the implementation of this weak and shoddily researched plan and for failing to protect the university, its academics and students from this unnecessary upheaval, while continuing to shamelessly enjoy their hefty salaries.

c) The Executive Director of Human Resources, Andy Lamb for his complicity with and one-sided support of the senior management team to the detriment of the internationally regarded academic workforce of this university.

  1. Redundancies within the senior management team, commensurate with the scale of redundancies over the past two years in the rest of the university community, and salary cuts for remaining senior managers to bring their salaries in line with academic pay scales.

CARRIED (unanimously)

 

Past motions