The latest Kingston UCU branch newsletter is available with updates on:
Kingston UCU newsletter October 2021
Please get in touch with any responses, feedback or items for future newsletters.
Kingston UCU sent an open letter to the Vice Chancellor and senior management on 16th September regarding face coverings. The letter was signed by 200 members of staff expressing their deep concern over Kingston University’s change of policy on face coverings to a position of ‘encouraging’ rather than mandating their use in enclosed teaching spaces, labs and workshops on campus, in light of increased rates of community transmission and the dominance of the Delta variant.
However, the interim University registrar has responded to say that ‘the current Covid-19 regulations and government guidance for HE settings mean that we are unable to mandate face coverings on our campuses. The guidance makes it clear that face coverings and social distancing are no longer advised for staff, students and visitors in communal spaces or teaching rooms and that we cannot refuse education to students who choose not to wear a face covering’.
Yet the government guidelines continue ‘The government has removed the requirement to wear face coverings in law but expects and recommends that they are worn in enclosed and crowded spaces where people may come into contact with people they don’t normally meet‘ which would seem to perfectly describe crowded lecture theatres. The guidance on face coverings, updated 17 September 2021, says ‘Businesses, including transport operators, can also ask their employees and customers to wear face coverings.’ As of 18th September in 20 other UK universities face coverings have been made mandatory in all teaching spaces. In London masks are mandated at LSE, Royal Holloway, Roehampton and Birkbeck. Kingston could choose to prioritise the health and safety of its staff, students and local community.
Members should continue to Contact Us about health and safety concerns including mask wearing, ventilation and cleaning, individual and general risk assessments, and make use of national UCU guidance on Coronavirus
Some good news!. Following KU UCU intervention, managers in HSCE have agreed to move all teaching online in the BSc and MSc pre-registration nursing programmes (apart from preparation for practice and simulation) with immediate effect.
This letter was sent by Kingston UCU on 27th January to David Mackintosh (chair of JNCC) and Andy Kent (Dean of HSCE) in response to shocking treatment of staff in the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education:
Dear David and Andy,
We are writing to you as JNCC Chair and Dean of the Faculty of HSCE demanding that you take immediate action to protect the health and wellbeing of our colleagues in the faculty of HSCE. We have received alarming reports from colleagues who feel that senior managers are putting undue pressure on staff to return to face-to-face teaching, this despite current government advice and staff presenting very legitimate concerns about their own health and that of vulnerable members of their close families.
KU UCU are dismayed at the latest notification from the Vice Chancellor communicating the message that it is “business as usual” at KU, despite the dramatic deterioration in the national situation.
The university management seem to take no account of the fact that we are in a national lockdown, and most concerningly seem to have no appreciation of the real issues and practicalities that affect staff and students travelling to the university for on campus teaching.
To be clear, KU UCU view management’s failure to react appropriately to the lockdown (i.e. moving all teaching online where possible) as a blatant dereliction of their civic responsibilities and their duty of care to KU staff, students and the wider community.
We are also fully aware that the new government advice includes the recommendation that “universities and adult education settings should consider moving to increased levels of online learning where possible“.
Attached here is an update from the branch committee, the document detailing health and safety failures are KU and management’s disappointing response.
KU UCU Branch Newsletter October 2020
Kingston University Health & Safety failures
Vote of No Confidence Management response 26102020 v3
KU UCU Branch Committee
You can read the response from management to our Vote of No Confidence in the ability of management to provide safety in the physical conditions in which staff are working:
Vote of No Confidence Management response 26102020 v3
We will share our thoughts on this in Branch Newsletter published soon
This was sent today (21st September) from the Kingston UCU branch committee to the Senior Leadership Team, through the official channel of the Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee (JNCC):
Dear JNCC colleagues,
KU UCU fervently request that Senior management adopt an immediate change of policy on face to face teaching in TB1.
Prompted by the rapidly changing Covid 19 national situation and particularly the dramatic increases in cases in our city, we request that all teaching be moved online except where face to face teaching is essential on pedagogic grounds.
The university has stated a commitment to review policies if the national situation changes. That time is now!
Further, KU UCU are not satisfied that campuses provide a safe working environment for our staff and students. Despite repeated requests we still have not had satisfactory clarity in relation to many H&S issues, particularly reporting of positive cases, and subsequent testing and tracing. We cannot recommend that our members return to a less than safe working environment. It also looks likely that the London Mayor will call for working from home and essential only use of public transport in the next few days. We believe that asking staff and students to travel and work/ learn on campus at this time puts them at unnecessary risk, particularly when online delivery is a viable and safer alternative.
We are also concerned about reports of strong arm and coercive tactics aimed at pressuring colleagues into returning to campus. We are logging these and will raise with management.
KU UCU branch committee
As promised an update on our current position (as of 17 September 2020):
Firstly, thank you for all your input and communications regarding concerns and experiences related to returning to campus. We have collated, and presented an outline summary of these to management.
KU UCU are holding firm in the opinion that all teaching, in TB1 at least, should be online except in situations where face to face teaching is essential on pedagogic grounds such as laboratory or studio sessions. This concurs with the current advice from UCU national.
This is the two weeks in the making management response to our demand for online teaching as the default: Response letter to UCU Branch motions AJK 150920 DM
We will send further updates, but this clearly falls short of our, and the national UCU, position on safe return to campus.
