{"id":932287,"date":"2026-05-02T05:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/932287\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T05:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T05:55:15","slug":"edinburgh-university-faces-year-of-disruption-after-change-to-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/932287\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh University faces ‘year of disruption’ after change to law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n As such, the statutory mandate for industrial action<\/a> has been increased from six months to one year.\n<\/p>\n

\n Under the previous regime, members of the University and College Union<\/a> (UCU) at the university would have been forced to pause industrial action in October in order to reballot for further action.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \"EdinburghEdinburgh University faces a year of industrial action. (Image: Gordon Terris)\n<\/p>\n

\n However, they are now not required to do so until April 2027.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n As a result, staff are legally able to continue an ongoing marking and assessment boycott (MAB) for twelve months, as well as engage in strikes and other forms of action.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n UCU members are undertaking industrial action over plans to cut \u00a3140m from the institution\u2019s budget, including \u00a390m in staff salaries.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n The union has estimated that as many as 1,800 people could lose their jobs.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n UCU Edinburgh<\/a> branch president Sophia Woodman told The Herald: \u201cUCU Edinburgh<\/a> just got its third industrial action mandate in a row, all consecutive. And the current one, because it’s under the new Employment Rights Bill brought in by Labour, is for a whole year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe terms of the dispute are a bit broader than before. We want no compulsory redundancies, and we want measures to address hidden redundancies.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe want non-staff related cuts to be exhausted before any cuts are made to staff. We want real action to address ballooning workloads and the cuts to staff have made that problem immensely worse and it was already bad.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cFinally, we want meaningful consultation\u2026 we feel we need a bit more than just information sharing sessions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n UCU general secretary Jo Grady<\/a> previously warned of a \u201cyear of disruption\u201d at the institution if management does not come to the table.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"SophiaSophia Woodman. (Image: NQ)\n<\/p>\n

\n Last week, she said: \u201cThis new mandate means there could now be a further year of disruption at Edinburgh if management won’t work with us to resolve this dispute.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cHaving failed to do so since announcing these cuts 13 months ago, it now needs to engage meaningfully with members and rule out compulsory redundancies.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Dr Woodman added: \u201cOur members don’t want to go on the MAB.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey’re doing it as a last resort to try to halt this tide of job losses at Edinburgh Uni because we don’t think management needs to be doing this.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI totally get that students are concerned,\u201d she remarked. \u201cSo, yeah, please, students, write to the principal. Tell him UCU Edinburgh is ready to try to work out a resolution of this dispute tomorrow.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n For their part, university bosses have reacted strongly to the boycott, which they say could affect student graduations and progression.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n As a result, all staff participating in the MAB are to be deducted 100% of their pay during the entirety of the action.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n University officials have informed staff that participating in the boycott constitutes a \u201cbreach of contract of employment\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n A letter sent to staff stated that pay would be deducted \u201cdue to the potentially significant impact on students\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cStaff who are participating in the boycott will not be obliged to carry out any other work (including non-marking and assessment work) while they are participating,\u201d the letter remarked.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n University principal and vice chancellor Peter Mathieson<\/a> has criticised the UCU for creating \u201cunnecessary strain on our students during an already challenging and important time\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cStudents will understandably have very real concerns about the disruption this boycott will cause, given that for some this may impact receiving awards or outcomes on progression,\u201d Professor Mathieson said last week.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe will take all practical steps to keep exams and coursework submissions on track to support our students\u2019 ability to progress and graduate,\u201d he added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe University will continue to offer consultation with union representatives and continue to uphold our commitments under the agreement reached in December 2025, as we believe this is in the best interests of our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As such, the statutory mandate for industrial action has been increased from six months to one year. Under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-932287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116503440610717747","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}