Author: OBU admin

Management Response to 5% Cuts

Alan Reeve – Branch Co-Chair
22 March 2018
Members will have received an email a few days ago with the questions put to the management regarding the proposed 5% cut to spending. At the Joint Staff Committee on the 19th of March, they responded – see here.
In essence, they said that it was too early to give us more than a general indication of what the strategy will be, but they took the opportunity to elaborate on their understanding of why the institution is in the state it is in with regard to recruitment. The reasons are set out in the paper they presented which is also provided here. According the Brendan Casey, the Registrar, the main reasons for Brooke’s plight are that we are in a much more competitive market, that our ‘offer’ is not distinctive’ and that we have no real USP. Being in Oxford is no longer of itself a critical factor in persuading potential students to apply and to come here.
The Faculties and Directorate have been asked to ‘model’ what a response to the need to reduce expenditure by 5% might look like, but the analysis of this exercise is still going on. The intention is that there will be a clear strategy by May when our questions will have fuller answers.
They stressed two things at the JSC: first that there will not be an across the board 5% cut – that the savings will be made in a more nuanced way; second that the primary aim is not to make savings by cutting jobs, as far as possible.
They recognize – and volunteered – the fact that Brookes has been somewhat ‘complacent’ over the years in relying on Oxford as an attractor, and in terms of believing that the quality of the student experience is as good as it had liked to think. The context in which HE operates has changed – with the cap coming off student number in particular- and Brookes is now facing the consequences of this.
Finally, we suggested that once the strategy is clearer, we would like an open meeting with the management where the member’s questions and issues could be directly addressed and discussed.

February Update

Dear Brookes UCU Members,
The Branch Executive Committee met last Tuesday. Of course, the major news is of the upcoming USS Strike, but we also have updates on the Joint Staff Committee meeting, as well as meetings from the Workload Planning group and the Associate Lecturer policy group. We’ve also had some productive meetings with Unison and the Student Union.
Next Branch Meeting

Before getting to all of that, I’d like to remind everybody of the next branch meeting, scheduled for ***Wednesday 7 March at 12pm (Gibbs 217)***.

USS Strike
At the branch exec meeting, we discussed how to support colleagues at the University of Oxford (see strike dates below). We discussed the possibilities of encouraging and organising for members to attend pickets, as well as donating or setting up a Hardship fund. We are waiting for the secretary of the University of Oxford UCU branch, whose exec was also meeting Tuesday, to confirm to us their plans and pickets details. We will communicate these asap.

In the meantime, we would like to encourage members to append the following message to their email signatures, as a show of support and solidarity with UCU colleagues that are participating in strike action.

“I am in a post-1992 institution and therefore not on strike but I support my colleagues in UCU currently in dispute for fair pensions and conditions. For more info see Why We’re Taking Action.”

Reports on Exec meeting 6 February 2018

Minutes for the Workload Planning review group meeting (WLP), the Joint Staff Committee meeting (JSC), Catering, and the Associate Lecturer (AL) policy have been uploaded to Rules and Minutes page. Please have a look in the following weeks and we can discuss in more detail at the Branch meeting on 7 March.

Officer Elections
Branch Officer elections are coming up. Calls for nominations should be made by 31 March, so that we can declare nominations to all members by 17 April. Confirmation and election of positions are made at our AGM branch meeting on 2 May. If you are interested in a position, please contact us! We are looking to restructure the division of roles and hours in the exec, and will be looking to enhance the position of faculty/department reps, so please get in touch even if you think the position you’re interested in is filled, as these might be shifting next year. We need all the help we can get!
Student Union, UNISON and UCU meeting

On Friday 2 February, your co-Secretary Maïa Pal met with two Student Union officers, Sam Cockle-Hearne (Vice-President Welfare) and Becca Harrington (Women’s officer), as well as two UNISON reps, Jon Appleton and Edwin Thomas.This follows from our previous meetings with Student Union officers last semester and last Spring. In November 2017, Andy Kilmister (Co-Secretary) and Maïa Pal met Diko Blackings (President) and Harriet Cherry (Vice President for Academic Experience) and it was great to be introduced and discuss our general roles and issues with the new officers.

On Friday, we had our first ‘3 Union’ meeting as UNISON were also represented. After some very productive discussions, we institutionalised the meetings, and have 3 more dates booked to meet before the end of this academic year.

December Update

Dear Brookes UCU members,

We are delighted to report we have appointed a new Branch Administrator. James Leveque (who is also teaching and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study of the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh) will be working for us one day a week from 10 January 2018.

Pensions Dispute

Most of us at Brookes are not concerned with the current dispute over USS pension schemes. However, if you are a member concerned, please let us know or contact UCU nationally to get advice on how the dispute might affect you. For more information: https://www.ucu.org.uk/strikeforuss

Health and Safety rep position still vacant

We are still looking for a new Health and Safety rep for 2018-2019! There are training and hours allocated for this position, and it is a crucial role to play. Please get in touch if interested!

Updates on recent meetings

You can find minutes and reports from our latest meetings on our website:

http://oxfordbrookes.web.ucu.org.uk/about-us-2/meeting-minutes/

  • Minutes of Branch meeting 15 November 2017
  • Minutes of Exec meeting 11 October 2017
  • Report of meeting with Student Union officers 13 November 2017
  • Report of meeting with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group (EDIAG) 21 November 2017
  • Report of Workload Planning Review Group 28 November 2017

Dates of next Branch meetings and AGM for all members to attend:

***7 March 2018 12-2pm***

***2 May 2018 (AGM and Open meeting)*** 

We are planning some exciting events for this date such as guest lectures and documentary screenings. If you want to help with these events, please get in touch!

Dates of next Exec meetings:

6 February 2018

13 March 2018

25 March 2018

Dates of your officers’ next meetings with management (please feedback any concerns in advance):

  • Joint Staff Committee (JSC) 

14 December 2017

26 March 2017

14 June 2017

  • Workload Planning Review Group (WLPRG): 

16 January

 

Report: UCU Congress 27-29 May 2017

Below is Bob Langridge’s report of the 2017 UCU Congress in Brighton. You can read Sally Hunt’s address here. 

 

UCU CONGRESS 2017

Once again, I thank you for your support in representing this branch at the UCU Congress in Brighton which took place over the late May bank holiday.

At an event such as this, the majority of business is about reports back from the NEC and its various sub-committees. That is not to suggest that the debates were not lively and at times excited; nevertheless, unlike some previous congresses, the contributions were generally good-natured.

The centrepiece of Congress was the General Secretary’s report. Key points included, falling staff numbers despite the rise in income fees, the tackling of pay inequality, casualization and escalating workloads. Finally, while not abandoning national bargaining, a lot of these issues need to be addressed at more local level.

The major issue, however, was future approaches to industrial action in the light of past performance. A commission will be set up to look at alternative approaches and a start will be made to make the approach less top-down with more consultation with local branches.

While most members at Brookes are in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, there are some who are signed up with USS. USS has gone through an extremely difficult few years and a report by First Actuarial comparing USS with TPS has been produced. Should any USS member wish to see a copy, please contact us.

–Bob Langridge

Report: HSS Faculty Meeting on Workload Planning, 15 May 2017

This is a report from Maïa Pal, who attended the HSS Faculty Meeting on Workload Planning of May 15, 2017 following a consultation with HSS UCU members.

HSS Faculty Meeting on Workload Planning | May 15, 2017

Many thanks to all those who responded to my call for comments ahead of the faculty WLP meeting last 15 May. I was able to input most of your comments and more general comments from the UCU WLP survey into a google doc sent round by the chair of the meeting, Michelle Montgomery, and the meeting then discussed these comments. 
 
It was very useful to be there and we even achieved some positive responses to our comments (assessment flexibility, prep flexibility, more hours for modules with ALs, flexibility with admin and recruitment hours). We also received promises of feeding back to the broader university WLP group issues that went beyond the prerogative of the faculty (e.g. revision of PCTHE inclusion to research hours). 
 
I apologise for some of the bigger issues some of you emailed me about that did not get covered, but these will be taken to the next meeting. Please get in touch if you want further clarification on a specific issue.
 
If you would like to consult the report of the UCU survey, please follow this link: http://oxfordbrookes.web.ucu.org.uk/oxford-brookes-ucus-workload-planning-survey-based-report/ 

 

Report: Student Union meeting, 9 May 2017

This is a report from Maïa Pal, who met with representatives of the Student Union to discuss future collaboration. 

Report from UCU – Student Union meeting

9 May 2017 | 2-3pm JHB 202

Present: Maïa Pal (Lecturer International Relations, Social Sciences UCU rep), Elena Saldana Quintans (SU President), James Patton (SU Vice President of Academic Experience), Robin Mcsorley (SU Deputy Chief Executive)

Agenda:

1. Presentations, long term objectives, and schedule for future meetings

2. Common issues – NSS Boycott, Student reps

3. Communication / website

  1. Presentations/Long Terms Objectives/Future Meetings

Objective for SU and UCU to work more closely together on a variety of issues – which will likely increase as the moves to and from Headington come nearer. Objective to meet regularly in a similar format, hopefully with an extra UCU exec member, and to include a slot for SU officer at UCU AGMs (next date for this TBC – UPDATE: inviting a SU officer to UCU AGMs  was agreed by UCU’s AGM held on 10 May 2017). Agreed for Maia Pal to meet with new officers who are taking position end of June. Meeting to be organised in July, to be booked by SU once calendars are clearer, and from then organise a set of meetings during the year.

  1. Common Issues

NSS Boycott: Both officers commented on lack of effectiveness of NUS boycott – President disagreed with the campaign, and claimed that they felt TEF forced university to improve its position and approach towards students’ demands regarding teaching and services provided. The changes to the TEF being discussed nationally were positive and pushing for less use of metrics, more focus on employability for part-time students and attainment gap for BME students. The president also stressed the importance of NSS comments for the university and how seriously she felt they were taken into account, so she felt the boycott was counter-productive.

The recent NUS conference decided this year to work to develop an alternative framework or TEF for measuring teaching, but also others aspects of university life (volunteering, issues, campaigns, etc.). Nation-wide student union consultation is to be compiled by the NUS, and data is to be analysed locally. No details given by NUS yet. SU have local discretion as to how to compile or analyse data for now. Brookes are going to look at data from the Teaching Awards to find common points or characteristics that have motivated students to nominate teachers.

Both officers emphasised how they were keen to have staff and UCU input, and I stressed how important that would be for us, after explaining why staff may have some cautionary remarks concerning this data, or how it would be used and analysed.

This led into a discussion about teaching methods, the outcome of which was that it would be useful for staff to be clearer about what teaching methods they use, and why, so as to help students also better evaluate and understand the different approaches and styles of teachers. If we are moving into a TEF environment with increasing student-led evaluation of teaching, more discussion and collaboration between unions is absolutely essential. The officers also noted the differences of opinion about teachers depending on the degree level (4, 5, 6, or PG) and we discussed how we could maybe extract this from the analysis of data.

Student reps: the SU is rolling out a new policy for student reps starting this September, which will be announced shortly. There has been confusion and rumours about this policy, and the officers were eager to stress that their policy did NOT involve telling students not to attend departmental meetings. We discussed the various challenges with student attendance, their reluctance to attend long and complex meetings, but also why their presence is absolutely essential, especially in line with previous discussions of the need for more student input into teaching methods and rationale so as to improve evaluation of teaching. Option to organise meetings so as to deal with issues requiring students all in one go, but I stressed this was not necessarily easy or even possible for us.

To recap, officers stressed there was a wide consultation of faculties, committees, lecturers, high percentage of reps, all across faculties, as well as SSCs and associate deans for student experience.

The policy will, most importantly, put in place faculty training of REPs by SSCs and standardise procedures and practices across university.

  1. Communication

We ran out of time but covered some communication issues faced by both unions, in terms of how best to reach both our memberships, and how to improve the image and knowledge of unions’ work, and how we could share valuable insights with each other about how to solve similar problems we face in the current climate of education.

Report from your Representatives at the Faculty of Business

Graham Diggle and Chris Harlow, your Faculty Representatives at the Faculty of Business, have compiled a report of their activity for the academic year 2016-2017. Read more about what they’ve been up to below. 

Faculty meetings

29 Nov

–> Meeting of a dozen UCU members to discuss:

  • Members attitude to calls for strike action
  • UCU work on workload planning
  • Reduced pay rates for Associate Lecturers

3 April (social event)

–> Meeting half a dozen UCU in social mode

  • One new member recruited
  • Concern about difficulty in having places to meet
  • Feelings about poor morale at Faculty – later echoed by report from UCL London

Meetings with Faculty Exec (Andrew Halford)

8 Dec

  • Discussion of the WLP framework, especially the intensification of workload and policy of loading to 100%
  • Contrast between the University tariff and proposal for open day “duties”
  • Request for notes of meeting with previous UCU (R Beresford)
  • Appropriate training for programme leads (experience of management difficulties)

19 May

Next meeting scheduled

Casework

Additionally, Graham and Chris have carried out a solid amount of casework, involving both formal and informal discussion processes. Providing direct assistance to members, they have covered issues including discrimination in the appointment process, bullying/harassment, summary cuts to research allowance, and workload planning problems.

 

A big thank you to Graham and Chris for all their hard work this year! 

 

Election results: Your Committee for 2017-2018

Here is the confirmed updated list of Exec Officers for our academic year 2017-2018:

The chair: Alan Reeve

The vice-chair: Bob Langridge

The treasurer: Stephen Hurt

The minutes secretary: Stewart Thompson

The Health & Safety representative: John Lo Breglio

The equality officer: Sola Adesola

Faculty representative TDE: Tim Jones

Faculty representative HLS: Stewart Thompson

Faculty representative HSS: Maia Pal, Alon Lischinsky, Juliet Henderson

Faculty representative OBI: Garry McGuire

Congratulations to the 2017-2018 team, and a warm welcome to Tim Jones, who has just joined the Committee for the very first time!

We have three more positions to fill. If you are interested in one of them or know someone who might be, then please get in touch!

– The branch secretary

– The anti-casualisation officer*

– Faculty representative for the Faculty of Business

Please note that induction, training, support, and dedicated union hours are available for these roles. The Committee will consider role-sharing for all three roles should this configuration arise.

 

* The anti-casualisation officer must currently be on a casualised contract or have been on such a contract in the past two years.

Oxford Brookes UCU’s Workload Planning Survey-Based Report

This is a report on the Workload Planning Framework (WLP) that we at Oxford Brookes UCU put together based on a survey of our members. 

Executive Summary:

This survey was conducted with the goal to assess the adequacy of the current WLP framework, and to identify which areas—if any—could be improved and how. Nearly half of our members responded to the survey, providing us with both significant quantitative data on trends and patterns across the university as well as extensive qualitative comments reflecting individual experiences.

Our main finding is that there is indeed a significant gap between the hours allocated under the WLP Framework and the hours members actually work in reality. Additionally, we found that there are some clear areas where this gap is particularly acute, which should be addressed as a matter of priority.

The report summarizes the detailed findings of our survey, highlighting the general trends in terms of gross numbers and providing an overview of the comments and suggestions made by the respondents regarding the different areas of the WLP framework.

We would like to emphasize the pressing character of this issue, particularly in light of the health and safety concerns it raises amongst staff in terms of stress.

All percentages in the report have been rounded to the nearest integer.

 

Click here for the full report: WLP_Survey-based-Report_FINAL