Boycott the University of Brighton

In May 2023 University of Brighton management announced plans to sack over a hundred members of staff. The cuts would mean a huge reduction in lecturers in subjects including art, media, education, architecture, engineering, humanities and sport science. The university claims it needs to make £17.9m in saving yet has spent over £50m on building projects in the last two years.

University of Brighton UCU members subsequently voted to take industrial action and UCU’s higher education committee (HEC) has now voted that the university be greylisted, which is the union’s ultimate sanction.

This means UCU is asking its members, other trade unions, labour movement organisations and the international academic community to support its members at Brighton in any way possible, including by:

• not applying for any advertised jobs at Brighton
• not speaking at or organising academic or other conferences at Brighton which are outside of contract
• not accepting new invitations to give lectures at Brighton
• not accepting new positions as visiting professors or researchers at Brighton
• not accepting invitations outside of contract to write for any academic journal which is edited at or produced by Brighton
• not accepting new contracts as external examiners for taught courses at Brighton
• refusing to collaborate on new outside of contract research projects with Brighton.

There are three main positive actions you can immediately take

1. If you have any personal or professional link with the university, please respect the global academic boycott of the institution.

   Please tweet your support, tagging @UniOfBrighton and @BrightonUCU and using the hashtags #BoycottBrightonUni and #SaveBrightonUni. You can download an image to share here:
   Share this page on Facebo

2. If you know anyone who works at the University of Brighton or who is otherwise associated with it (e.g. a member of council or court), then please get in touch with them.

   Make sure they know what is happening, make sure they know how serious the situation is!

   Ask what they are doing to support at-risk colleagues and defend the university.

   Ask if they are supporting any industrial action. It’s especially important that senior members of the university – professors and heads of department/school are held to account: heads of school sit on university senate, which is responsible for the institution’s academic integrity.

   See the Brighton UCU web site for more information.

3. Donate to the branch’s fundraiser here.