PRESS RELEASE

For immediate use

Vote of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor of University of Brighton and her senior team

In response to the announcement of the University’s plans to make redundant over 120 staff, including approximately 100 lecturers, the two unions at University of Brighton, UCU and Unison, launched a Vote of Confidence in the Vice Chancellor and her senior team.

The electronic vote has been running since last Wednesday afternoon and is open to all those with a university login, whether they are staff or students, whether union members or not.

By late afternoon on Tuesday 30th May, over 800 staff and 600 students had cast their vote. The overall No vote stood at 94%. Among staff, the proportion of No votes was 92.5%. (See graphic below) The poll remains open.

Chair of Brighton UCU, Dr Mark Abel, said:

“This overwhelming No vote clearly demonstrates that staff have no faith in the direction in which the current Vice Chancellor is taking the University. They do not believe that mass redundancies is the way to secure the future of the University. Rather it will lead to a spiral of decline. Losing these jobs will further reduce the courses and modules offered to students, increase the workload of remaining staff, and worsen a student/staff ratio which is already the 97th worst in the country. University of Brighton is not safe in this Vice Chancellor’s hands.”

UCU, which represents the majority of the 400 staff who have been declared at risk of redundancy, is determined to fight to defend every job. A big meeting of Brighton UCU recently voted for a motion calling for the resignation of the Vice Chancellor, or failing that, her removal by the Board of Governors of the University.

UCU members at the University are currently balloting to achieve a mandate for industrial action, and the union has called a demonstration in Brighton on Saturday 10th June under the slogan ‘Save Brighton University: No to mass redundancies’. The rally will be addressed by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, MP for Brighton Kemptown, among others.

 

For further information, contact:

Mark Abel, UCU Chair

Ryan Burns, UCU Vice Chair

Brighton UCU website – https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/ucu/

For contact details, email brightonucu@gmail.com

 

ENDS

UCU is the biggest union in post-16 education in the UK. At University of Brighton it represents staff on academic grades – lecturers, researchers and professors.

two charts, showing 94% No Confidence vote, and the split of voters between staff and students: approx two thirds of voters are staff

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