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In 2012 we campaigned to defend academic values, at UCL these are enshrined in Statute 18. Mobilisations through formal governance bodies and our formal negotiations persuaded UCL to drop proposals to replace Statutes with a mix of 'Ordinances' and HR processes.
Towards the end of 2010 UCL consulted us over the introduction of a pilot 'Rank & Yank' performance management scheme in the biomedical faculty. When UCL refused to listen to our objections we organised a boycott of the pilot scheme and it was quietly dropped.
The dramatic increase in tuition fees in 2010 led to a spirited campaign by students around the country including at UCL where a student occupation ran for a number of weeks. When UCL proposed a 6% cut to staff numbers across a number of areas in 2009, UCL UCU members responded with a campaign including a ballot for local industrial action. UCL eventually agreed to avoid compulsory redundancies and industrial action was averted. We also alerted our members to a plan to outsource email provision - a staff survey identified widespread opposition to outsourcing and the strategic and technical problems the scheme would likely cause.
UCL started a review of professorial pay in 2008 and we ensured that our members concerns were heard during the consultation process.
Proposals to create a 'City Academy' school were published by UCL in 2007. UCL UCU led a local campaign against the Academy proposal and was instrumental in making opposition to the government's Academy initiative AUT policy (the UCU was formed in 2006 from a merger of AUT and NATFHE).
Also in 2007 UCL proposed changes to redundancy pay that would have disadvantaged longer serving and higher paid staff. UCL UCU campaigned against the changes to redundancy pay and took a case the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) claiming that the original scheme was a contractual term. The CAC agreed and nearly a year later UCL re-instated the original scheme terms.
A white paper published by UCL in 2005 proposed 15% job cuts over a three year period. UCL UCU organised significant opposition to the proposed 15% cuts which meant that UCL achieved no more than half of the original target (167 posts) - with staff leaving voluntarily and no compulsory redundancies.
