UCL UCU Notes, believes, resolves....

The below message was sent out to all our members. It concerns the elections being held to the new Academic Board Governance Committee that was established through a vote at Academic Board. See our report on the Special Meeting where this happened . On such a crucial issue we have given our view of the kind of list of candidates that would fight secure academic values in the face of Senior Management control. Message begins This message is especially directed at our members on Academic Board, but it is important that the wider membership is aware of what is happening too. A new Governance Committee has been set up by academic board after an unprecedented Special Meeting on which we recently reported. This committee is charged with scrutinizing decisions and policies at UCL for their impact on academic work and academic community (including the work of those who support academics in their work). It is essential that this committee works for academic values, freedom, and communit...

UCU Report of the Special Meeting of Academic Board: 18 May 2017 Please find below a report on Thurs 18 May's momentous Academic Board (AB) Special Meeting. This report has been distributed by email to UCL UCU members. The meeting was called by 22 signatories of a letter in response to a Survey of Board members on the current state of the university and its Management. The Survey had 492 responses and overwhelmingly showed that the academic community felt marginalized and alienated from many decisions that were impacting on their work in negative ways. It was the best attended AB meeting in recent memory, with nearly 400 members of the Board filling out the Quad Pavilion (about half of the attendees were standing and the room has seating for 200). The Provost, in an unprecedented move, had surrounded himself with a panel of Senior Management Team members, and the first few rows of the room were all Senior Management and Senior Management+, which was amply demonstrat...

Below are some FAQs to help colleagues understand the issues behind the latest controversies taking place at Academic Board: A recent survey to all members of Academic Board (the principal body of UCL responsible for academic governance) broached a number of questions as to how the members of the Board felt about recent changes in the university, about management, about student numbers, morale, and finally about a proposal to call a Special Meeting of the Board to discuss these questions in a focused way. Many of the 492 responses showed dissatisfaction with the management of the university , with over 67% responding to the statement "UCL is well managed" with "disagree" (40.85%) or "strongly disagree" (26.83%). 95% of the respondents said they agreed that a Special Meeting of AB should be called to discuss these matters. As a result, 22 members of AB signed a letter calling for that Special Meeting . In the letter, there is a proposal for a Go...