This branch notes: Three students were arrested on campus on 21st October following a peaceful protest against the inclusion of arms companies complicit in genocide at a careers fair The police were ‘informed’ by SMT about the protest Such a move is in line with a wider authoritarian approach currently being adopted at the University A recent report on the detrimental impact of the presence of police on campus on…

This branch notes: The HE sector faces a severe national crisis, with over 15,000 jobs lost in the past year. While the University of Leeds has not initiated redundancies, management has introduced an early retirement scheme without union consultation. Colleagues face growing uncertainty due to fluctuating student numbers and a turbulent international context. Persistent issues around workload, casualisation, and insecurity will be worsened by the proposed scheme. Following intense industrial…

This Branch Notes: That the university is planning a technology refresh using HP laptops. That HP-branded corporations provide technology and services to the Israeli military, police, and Population and Immigration Authority, which are used to maintain a system of occupation and discrimination against Palestinians. This Branch Believes: That the university’s procurement processes should be ethically sound and not complicit in human rights violations. That the use of HP products contradicts…

Nominations are needed for a branch campaigns officer, as the post wasn’t filled at the annual general meeting. You can find out more about the role at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/standing-for-election-to-the-ucu-committee/. The campaigns officer is also part of the branch’s negotiating team. Please send your nominations by email to ucu@leeds.ac.uk by the close of Thursday 16 October. (Or you can email a.j.u.smith@leeds.ac.uk if you prefer not to alert current officers to your candidacy in…

The UCU branch committee is calling a set of by-elections for where there are department rep vacancies, to ensure there are reps across the university If there is a vacancy in your area (see list below), please think about which of your colleagues might be a good UCU rep. For example, someone that colleagues have confidence in, whose judgement they trust, and who is a good listener. The deadline for…

With the start of the new academic year, we would like to draw attention to the importance of respecting important religious holidays when requested, particularly those of minoritised faiths. We have a few upcoming religious holidays during teaching intensive periods. Please do make note of these and support staff and student requests. Different people have different approaches to practicing faith, so no one is expected to know about the needs…

In today’s episode, recorded Thursday 4 September 2025 (and published late): Changes to our branch committee, career pathways, the White paper, changes to university policies. With Jenny Rivas Perez, Rachel Walls and Alan Smith. If you prefer your union branch news direct to your ears, search for LeedsUCU wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you get notified about new episodes.  See all the episodes and transcripts at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/podcast/…

Here is the schedule of UCU University of Leeds branch general meetings for the 2025-2026 academic year. General meetings are for all members of UCU University of Leeds branch. It is where we make most of our collective decisions. If you think there is something the union collectively should (or shouldn’t!) be doing, you can propose a motion to a general meeting. This is the schedule of ordinary general meetings…

UCU is holding an open meeting – for staff at the university whether or not you are a union member – on Tuesday 9 September 12-1pm to find out about parents’ experience of university benefits and support for parents (for example maternity leave, paternity/ partner leave, adoption leave, neonatal care leave, parental leave and shared parental leave). The UCU University of Leeds branch committee wants to hear about your experience of accessing…

The UCU IT team has fixed the problem that some members of the branch were not receiving UCU emails, particularly if their email was hosted by hotmail, outlook.com or live.com. The UCU IT team investigated and made changes in early August which appear to have fixed the problem. If you have any further issues with not receiving email from UCU, please contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

There seems to be an issue with hotmail, outlook.com and live.com not delivering some UCU emails. It appears to mainly affect emails with attachments, and it doesn’t seem to be consistent.  UCU’s IT supplier is trying to resolve a problem with the Microsoft subsidiaries, but as yet we don’t know if this is a temporary issue, a fault, or a change to the service provided by those platforms. There’s a…

This statement accompanies University of Leeds UCU’s signature on this open letter: https://protestisnotterrorism.wordpress.com/2025/07/14/open-letter-protest-is-not-terrorism-defend-palestine-action-from-proscription/.  University of Leeds UCU Committee has agreed to sign the open letter opposing the proscription of Palestine Action, alongside over 1300 individual signatories and a number of organisations from across the trade union, academic, and human rights sectors. This is in line with UCU’s national position, as set out in UCU’s recent statement opposing the proscription of…