Email to members from branch vice president Chloe Wallace, 9 June 2020 Dear members I hope that you and yours are well – it is for many of us a particularly challenging time of a particularly challenging year, and I hope that you are getting through it. I am writing to update you on the situation in relation to the University’s proposed new Audio-Visual (lecture capture) policy. Thank you to all those who took the time to give us feedback on the proposals: if you have not already seen it, the summary of feedback is here: Thank you also to those who attended our General Meeting on the topic. You can find the text of the motion passed at that meeting here:  In response to our concerns, the university has made some changes to the draft policy. There is a welcome change on wording around performance management, and some movement on the issue of ownership. However, many areas of concern remain unchanged.  You may have seen in a general staff email that the revised policy is now out for consultation amongst the wider staff – the link is here. We’d encourage all members to contribute to that staff wide consultation. … continue reading

As members will be aware, the university is proposing to introduce a new policy on audio-video recording  (lecture capture) and has consulted UCU on its contents. Many thanks to those members who responded to our request for feedback: you can find a summary of feedback here. As you can see, a range of views were expressed and the feedback was really helpful to help us understand the wider implications of the policy changes and the attitudes of members towards it. Many thanks also to those who attended our General Meeting on 12th May. We took all the feedback we received, the motion that was passed at the General Meeting along with advice from national head office, and compiled a document to send to the university – you will probably need to read in alongside the original proposed draft. Broadly speaking, our position is that we support drives towards inclusive education and particularly appropriate support for disabled students, and we recognise that many staff consider lecture capture to be a useful part of their pedagogy. However, we have significant concerns about the misuse of lecture capture for performance management or for replacing staff, and we know that many staff have pedagogic … continue reading