Ballot on industrial action over Four Fights dispute opens

Posted on 18 October 2021 by kingston

Kingston UCU members will be balloted from Monday 18th October to Thursday 4th November on the Four Fights dispute over unsafe workloads, casualisation, pay deflation, and the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

See here for more information about what the dispute is about and how these issues relate to staff at Kingston.

See here for details of how to cast your vote and why it is so important (we need 50% of the membership to vote for it to count!)

We will contacting members to remind them to vote and answer any questions they have. Contact us or talk to a member of the branch committee in your faculty.

Help get the vote out and make it count! Talk to members in your department about the dispute and remind them to vote. Download posters here and put them up in your office.

We are at breaking point.

Vote YES and send the message to management: Kingston staff have had enough

Top Quartile Kingston Politics Courses Should be Re-opened

Posted on 23 September 2021 by kingston

Politics at Kingston University has leapt up the Guardian league table for UK Universities from ranking 61^st in 2021 to 17^th in 2022. This extraordinary result puts Politics in the top quartile nationwide for the discipline.

To emphasise the achievement, Kingston Politics is ranked the second highest post-92 institution in the entire UK, missing the top spot only by a small margin. The Guardian’s table ranks Kingston Politics markedly ahead of all comparable London region institutions, considered to be its competitors.

The achievement of a top quartile ranking is the fruit of the great commitment and teamwork between staff and students in the Politics department over the last three years.

Significantly, the result is entirely at odds with the unduly pessimistic forecasts of market ‘research’ that was commissioned and used as evidence by senior management for its decision to suspend and then close Politics undergraduate courses.

While a competitive league table is only one way of assessing departmental performance, even so it is an important one because it feeds through into candidate student choices.

The Guardian top quartile ranking completely validates the academic staff’s case that there has been a clear uptick in teaching and learning performance, and especially the students’ campaign to keep the department open.

Based on this new evidence, senior management should reconsider its closure decision as hasty, ill-informed but above all ill-judged.

Rather than bury the news as an inconvenient truth, senior management should build on this latest success, and reopen Kingston’s top quartile performing undergraduate Politics courses for recruitment in 2022/23.

More coverage of Kingston job and course cuts

Posted on 3 August 2021 by kingston

The jobs cuts and planned course closures at Kingston following the KSA and Politics ‘consultations’ made it onto the front page of the Surrey Comet again in July.

As noted, ‘Staff have described the mental health impact of losing their livelihoods during a pandemic, in which they have made exceptional efforts to teach and support students, as “inhumane”. They’ve described the consultation process as a “sham” in which none of the issues raised over errors and omissions in the rationale, or counter proposals put forwards, were engaged with, and substantive decisions had already been taken.’

The response from the university ‘spokesperson’ fails to even mention the decision to axe History, or the fact all remaining historians face compulsory redundancy, nor that staff in Media & Communications and Film Studies have lost valued colleagues to voluntary severance and now face intensified workloads.

As Steve Woodbridge, Senior Lecturer in History states, “The decision to axe all history provision flies in the face of promises the University made to retain a history ‘footprint’ and ensure future engagement with the study of history. The University has also completely ignored the voices of national organisations who represent the history profession and who expressed their concern at Kingston’s plans, such as History UK and the Royal Historical Society.”

The Royal Historical Society themselves have followed up their initial announcement on the threats to History courses in post-1992 universities with a strong statement explicitly decrying Kingston’s decision to permanently withdraw History provision, the consequences for History staff, and the reputational impact of these cuts, noting “We are all the poorer for the loss of this hub of historical excellence”. Here is the statement in full:

Updates on the fight to #SaveKingstonUni

Posted on 26 May 2021 by kingston

Kingston staff have told local journalists at the Surrey Comet about how devastated and horrified they are by the neglect and indifference of management, whose catalogue of poor decisions have directly damaged the courses being closed, and who are refusing to set out what cuts to actual jobs they are proposing and what this will mean for students and staff who remain.

Professional associations have denounced the course closures including the Royal Historical Society, History UK, the Society for the Study of Labour History, the Political Studies Association, the British International Studies Association, and the Association for Contemporary European Studies. They have highlighted how the closure of these courses at universities like Kingston with many first-generation students and a high proportion of BAME,commuting and local students, limits access and participation and damages democracy.

The student-led campaigns #SaveKingstonUni and #SaveKUPolitics continue on apace, but the VC has refused to meet with students.

Over 500 supporters have signed the petition to stop the cuts at Kingston. Numerous UCU branches have shared their support online and at solidarity meetings.

These cuts are part of attacks across our sector on the arts, humanities and social sciences, London South Bank, Chester, Leicester, Aston and Sheffield are facing similar cuts. But there are also cuts in health and life sciences – Liverpool have started 3 weeks of strike action against redundancies (donate to their strike fund here: ww.ulivucunews.org.uk/hardship-fund) This is an ideological attack on higher education.

The only way management will back down if you, your co-workers and fellow students make them.

How you can stop the cuts at Kingston:

Sign the petition and share it with everyone in your department / course / school.
Share it on social media with #SaveKingstonUni #savekupolitics #savekuhistory #savekumedia #savekufilm
Support the campaigns on Twitter: @kingstonucu @uni_kingston @savekupolitics. Instagram: @savekingstonuni @savekupolitics @kingstonucu
Write to the VC and Board of Governors using the template letter
Come to meetings like the UCU Solidarity Network Organising to Win – Support the Disputes! rally 6pm 27th May Register:
Come to branch meetings – keep an eye on inboxes for details

#SaveKingstonUni

Posted on 17 May 2021 by kingston

In April, Kingston University announced the closure to new applicants of its BA Politics, Human Rights, International Relations courses, the final closure of its BA History course, and proposed severe staffing cuts in Media and Communications and Film Studies. This represents a concerted attack on the provision of social sciences, arts, and humanities at Kingston. The university has given notice that up to 55 staff members are at risk of redundancy. The threat of redundancy comes despite the exceptional efforts of staff in teaching and supporting students during the pandemic.

The course closures and job losses in these subjects follow a catalogue of poor management decisions in the organization and marketing of courses over the last four years. Academic staff have repeatedly been sidelined and overruled when they warned of the negative impact of management decisions. Now teaching quality, student experience, staff workloads, and wellbeing are all threatened by the proposed job cuts.

The courses targeted at Kingston are part of a wider attack on the humanities, social sciences and arts, particularly in post-92 universities, that will dramatically narrow student choice, access, and participation in these critical subject areas. This would undermine Kingston’s commitment to widening participation, and reduce student and staff diversity in the affected departments.

Kingston UCU and KU students are mobilising to resist these cruel and short-sighted management decisions. We are calling upon Kingston University to halt with immediate effect these cuts and closures, reinstate all suspended courses, remove the threat of redundancies, and commit to maintain current staffing numbers.

We will need the full support of the branch and all members of the University community in this.

What can you do?

Support the campaign by signing and sharing this petition
Follow us on our social media accounts: Twitter: @kingstonucu @uni_kingston @savekupolitics. Instagram: @savekingstonuni @savekupolitics.
Tweet and amplify using: #SaveKingstonUni #saveKUpolitics #saveKUhistory #saveKUmedia #saveKUfilm
Add #SaveKingstonUni to your email signature for one day – tomorrow 18th May
Share this post with colleagues who are not UCU members who care about the future of the social sciences, arts and humanities at Kingston University

Want to get more involved? Contact us if you want to join our dynamic team of staff and students on Slack, where we are organising together to fight for the future of this university.

Update: Threats to jobs in Politics, History, Media & Communications and Film Studies

Posted on 28 April 2021 by kingston

“Suspension of UG Politics Courses – who will be next?”

This was the headline from our last branch newsletter. Now we know who will be next as unfortunately colleagues in History, Film Studies and Media and Communication have been targeted in a course rationalisation process in KSA that will seek to form three new schools in that Faculty. History colleague FTE’s are to be reduced from 3 to 0 whilst colleagues in Film Studies and Media and Communication have been rather arbitrarily lumped together to find a reduction in FTE’s from 13.3 to 7.2.

Thus, there is the possibility of job losses for a significant number of our colleagues from different parts of the university. This is how management thanks us for working so hard over the last year in these truly extraordinary times and helping them to keep the university afloat. Clearly management does not have the best interests of their employees at heart and no amount of faux concern about stress and mental health issues on Staffspace can hide this.

Continue reading →

UCU condemns KU decision to suspend recruitment to Politics, International Relations and Human Rights UG courses

Posted on 30 March 2021 by kingston

National UCU has issued a statement condemning Kingston University’s decision to suspend recruitment its Politics, International Relations and Human Rights undergraduate courses for its 2021 intake.

UCU said it is concerned that the suspension could eventually result in the courses closing altogether with inevitable knock-on effects on students and staff, risking jobs in the department and damaging the learning prospects of politically engaged students. This in a time of increased political engagement amongst students and the wider community in terms of Black Lives Matter, the Me Too movement, LGBTQ+ issues and the climate crisis agenda.

Read in full: UCU condemns decision by Kingston University to suspend recruitment to its Politics, International Relations and Human Rights undergraduate courses

KU UCU branch votes unanimously to oppose suspension of recruitment to Politics courses and demand consultation

Posted on 26 March 2021 by kingston

At an emergency branch meeting March 26th, Kingston UCU members voted unanimously to to oppose the decision to suspend recruitment to undergraduate courses in the Department of Politics, and any future redundancies, and to demand proper consultation as per our Trade Union Recognition Agreement which mandates that ‘operational decisions, especially those likely to affect the job prospects or security of particular groups or occupation’ should be subject to prior consultation.

We call on the university to commit to supporting the Department of Politics and its students and staff, and congratulate and thank Politics, International Relations & Human Rights students for the enormous initiative and creativity of their efforts to save the undergraduate course and the department.

We believe that Politics should not become a subject taught only at Russell Group universities and that it is vital that it continues to be taught to students from a wide range of backgrounds such as those at Kingston.

Read the motion in full here

KU 2022+ – KU UCU first response

Posted on 19 March 2021 by kingston

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.

Continue reading →

Kingston Politics Department is under threat!

Posted on 12 March 2021 by kingston

On 4^th March Kingston UCU were told by senior management that undergraduate courses in Politics, International Relations and Human Rights would be closed to new students entries in the next academic year due to low recruitment.

There has been no consultation with staff in the Politics department about these course suspensions.

We believe this is a short-sighted, underhand and unjust act of self-harm by the university, which threatens staff jobs, students’ futures, and Kingston’s reputation. We fear this may be only the start of management using Covid-19 as an excuse for damaging cuts.

Kingston students have launched a petition to save their department. Please sign and share it: https://www.change.org/p/students-save-ku-politics-department

KU UCU have written to senior management requesting these suspensions are halted until there has been proper consultation with staff and union representatives. We have challenged the rationale for suspending undergraduate recruitment, and proposed alternative solutions to improving staff-student ratios.

We will arrange a meeting on this issue soon – keep an eye on your inboxes.

#saveKUpolitics