UK universities face autumn of chaos as ‘prolonged’ strikes planned

Long-running strike action marking the start of the academic year on UK university campuses is being driven by a new wave of union militancy and could serve as a “test case” for wider walkouts, experts have said.

In the most notable case, the University of Nottingham’s University and College Union (UCU) branch has declared strike action of 67 days, expected to last for the majority of the autumn term, as the institution looks to cut 600 full-time equivalent jobs.

Meanwhile, UCU members at the universities of Edinburgh and Dundee have each declared strike action lasting 25 days. And more strikes are expected to be announced soon, coming on top of a summer of marking and assessment boycotts from staff at Nottingham and Edinburgh.

Last year, striking unions were on the picket lines for an average of 10 days at the start of the autumn term. The lengthiest spell of strike action occurred at Nottingham, totalling 20 days. But Nick Clarke, Nottingham UCU’s branch president, said this year’s extended strike was necessary given the scale of the latest job cut proposals, which were leaked in April.

“It’s a lot of action, and we’re painfully aware of that,” Clarke said. “But at this stage, we feel there needs to be…a significant credible threat [to university operations] because we’re approaching the endgame of this restructure and there are…significant [compulsory] redundancies on the table,” he explained, pointing to the fact that in the union's view, the university's job cuts target is not achievable with voluntary redundancies alone. The industrial action will begin at the same time as the university is due to make a final decision on its proposals, Clarke added.

“If you can’t take significant action when there are 750 [people’s] jobs on the line in this job market, then I don’t really know when you can,” he said, adding that staff feel “drained” and “exhausted” by the ongoing threat of redundancy.

Changes to trade union law that came into effect last year mean there is “more of an emphasis on the start of semester” for industrial action, Clarke said, because the legislation extended the length of the union’s strike mandate from six months to 12 months, allowing industrial action approved in the previous academic year to extend into the next academic year.

Meanwhile, Lena Wånggren, co-president of Edinburgh’s UCU branch, said the strike action was necessary to counter the threat of compulsory redundancies included in proposals to cut £140 million from the university budget.

“Five weeks of strike action is not what anyone wants, but members are prepared to take action to protect jobs. UCU members are prepared to take action for our colleagues and our students. We want to safeguard students’ education – not just for five weeks in autumn, but for the future,” she said.

Peter Mathieson, Edinburgh’s principal and vice-chancellor, said: “We are extremely disappointed that, despite ongoing discussions, the UCU has given notification of five weeks’ strike action, which will unfairly and deliberately target students’ first semester of the academic year.

“While we recognise the right our staff have to take this action, we will continue to do everything we can to mitigate the impacts of that action on our students. In addition, we remain firmly committed to constructive and transparent engagement with our joint unions. To maintain the university’s position as a world-class institution with a vital role in Scotland’s economic and civic life, we must take responsible, sometimes difficult, decisions to secure its future.”

Gregor Gall, an industrial relations expert who is a visiting professor at the universities of Glasgow and Leeds, said the “choice by a small minority of UCU branches to take such prolonged industrial action” has been driven by the influence and prominence of left-wing campaigners within such unions, and by the “militant mood of the members” amid “the biggest crisis in university funding in a generation”.

It was a “testament” to the “scale of the cuts at these particular universities” that such action was taking place, he said.

“Whether these actions will be effective is another matter,” Gall continued. While Edinburgh and Nottingham have notable financial reserves, creating “leverage” for the unions, “the situation for the UCU at Dundee is different and harder as it seems the Scottish government is unwilling to bail the institution out any further”. The institution has received more than £40 million in government assistance after being plunged into crisis at the end of 2024, when a £30 million black hole in its budget was revealed.

Herriot-Watt University, whose term started earlier this month, has already experienced two days of industrial action in response to the threat of compulsory redundancies in its department of languages and intercultural studies and in a programme that delivers web-based learning to schools across Scotland.

And at the University of Exeter, which is looking to cut 200 jobs, the UCU is expected to soon announce its next steps after 91 per cent of members voted in favour of strike action on a turnout of 74 per cent.

Speaking after the vote, on 9 September, Michael Flexer, Exeter UCU co-chair and a lecturer in English, said there was a “strong enthusiasm for a sustained campaign of industrial action”. Union members are “fired up, angry and want their voices heard”, he added.

“This is a very, very passionate, angry group of people, who feel so disrespected, mistreated and gaslit by the management. They’re desperately sad about the people who have gone through the voluntary redundancy…There is a strong enthusiasm for a sustained campaign of industrial action.”

A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham said that while the university recognises employees’ right to take industrial action, it is “disappointed” by the timing of the latest round of action, which “could impact new and returning students at the start of the academic year”.

“Many of our students will be unaffected…but we understand that this will cause concern and [we] want to reassure them we have clear procedures and support in place to minimise any disruption.”

Roger Seifert, emeritus professor of industrial relations at the University of Wolverhampton, said the strikes at Nottingham, Edinburgh and Dundee have “national backing” among union members. They can be seen as “test case[s] by all sides” as the sector waits to see if prolonged industrial actions prompt the universities to change their stance. The strikes might also help the union to highlight “the acute nature of the crisis” to the prime minister, Andy Burnham, he added.

“There’s all to play for still, but no obvious outcomes in sight,” he said. “Everyone is digging in as trench warfare seems to be the preferred option of the unions – and members feel they have no alternative but to fight on.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com