Kingston staff have been sent details of KU22+, the university’s “strategic plan for 2022/23 and beyond”. This document contains details of the SMT’s current thinking about the future of Kingston University and it specifies a number of strategic priorities. A number of different working groups have already been formed as part of this strategic plan – as a recognised trade union representing staff, UCU must be included in these working groups.
We have gone through the document in some detail at this point and wanted to draw your attention to a number of significant areas of concern.
On page 11, we note that the plan will be to focus on “eliminating courses ranked in the bottom decile nationally and reducing those ranked in the bottom quartile”. This was surprising to read – UCU has never been consulted on these plans, which have the potential to have a very significant and negative impact on our members. UCU must be consulted as a matter of priority. We are also seeking urgent clarification on what “eliminate” means.
On page 13, we also see a commitment to “implementing the academic domains project”. UCU is very concerned about this ongoing commitment – as it currently stands, the academic domains project needs considerable development. KU is potentially in breach of its recognition agreement with UCU over the terms of the academic domains project.
For professional services staff, there is another priority, which will be “reorganising and ensuring our professional support services are well aligned to the academic endeavour and student experience”. On the face of it, it sounds reasonable but given the recent and exhaustive professional services review, and the considerable stress this has placed on our colleagues there, we are wondering whether this is necessary or justified. There is also a reference to an “agile working” pilot for professional services staff at Hind Court. Your union must be consulted on any decisions taken on these issues.
Affecting all of our members, on page 17, it details an ambition towards “revising recruitment, staff development and succession planning procedures and developing pay and promotion procedures”. UCU hasn’t been invited to the specific working group on this yet but expects an invitation. A review was promised at Senate about the effectiveness of the university’s appointments policy at senior levels given the disastrous comings and goings of various Deans and Pro VCs in the recent past. To date, the outcomes of any such review have not been made public. It is clear though that the university needs to significantly improve in this area.
One of the key projects specified in KU2022+ aims to develop “a culture of high performance”. This is totally out of touch given our tireless work over the past year. It also contradicts the VC’s statement that “”Our success will be dependent on our dedication and commitment to our priorities, and our enthusiasm in delivering for our students”. We would argue that encouraging enthusiasm, “retaining high capability staff”, and “building a Kingston community” are much less likely when choosing to pursue a staff-deficit model during a pandemic. In addition, we obviously already have a culture of high performance as all academic staff changed their practice within an exceedingly short time frame to switch from face-to-face to online teaching environments. The hard work, ingenuity and professionalism of colleagues in enabling the university to carry on its business under such inauspicious conditions is being rewarded by a punitive performance management culture, worse working conditions and job cuts.
We would totally agree with the plan’s commitment to “mitigate risk in a volatile market and policy environment by sustaining a broad range of subject areas” but are at a loss as to how this fits in with the recent decision to suspend undergraduate admissions in Politics and the slimming down of teaching teams elsewhere across the university.
We are going to need the active involvement of all members of our branch to fully engage with KU2022+ – please Contact Us if you want to find out more about how to Get Involved. We would be particularly interested to hear from colleagues from courses in the bottom decile or quartile nationally, where we currently do not have much representation.
We welcome members feedback and comments as always.