Reps and Contacts

UCU Local Contacts

As part of the UCU Build the union campaign - members can volunteer to be a UCU local contact - read more about what is involved on the UCU Build the union website.

October 2024 - we are very pleased that 15 members have now volunteered to be UCU local contacts in their units, please email ucu@open.ac.uk if you can volunteer to be a local contact.

Branch Executive Committee 2024-2025

The executive committee consists of the branch officers and 12 ordinary members who are elected once a year by ballot of the membership, plus a few ex-officio members and a limited number of co-opted members. The executive committee is responsible for the day to day running of the branch and determines the composition of our negotiating teams. The executive also sets up working groups, which usually consist of executive members but sometimes include other members. Click here to view the current Executive Committee.

Associate Lecturer Representatives 2024-2025

The AL reps are elected once a year by our AL members in each region. They are points of contact, and local representatives for ALs, and collectively they function as the AL reps’ committee, which plays an important role in advising the branch executive committee on matter relating to AL employment. Click here to view the current OU UCU AL reps Committee.

Departmental Representatives

We would like UCU members to become departmental representatives/UCU contacts and on the Open University campus, we have the following reps/contacts, if you would like to be a Departmental UCU rep then please contact the UCU Office on 53069 (Deb Shann on Skype for Business or Teams) or ucu@open.ac.uk. If your OU unit/department is not listed then we do not have a rep or contact in that unit, please get in touch if you could volunteer to take on this role.

Academic Services	Torin Grace
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)	Ros Crone (School of Arts and Humanities, History department) Francesca Benatti (School of Arts and Humanities, English and Creative Writing department) Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann (School of Arts and Humanities, Art History department) Julia Chukwuma (School of Social Sciences and Global Studies, Economics department) Becca Harrison (School of Creative Industries) Caitlin Adams (FASS Deanery) Malik Refaat (School of Psychology & Counselling)
Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)	Analisa Goodwin (Business School) Saoirse O'Shea (Business School)
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) STEM - Knowledge Media Institute (KMi)	John Busvine (STEM Deanery) Kit Power (STEM Deanery) Ceri Gwyther (STEM Laboratories) Iman Naja
Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies (WELS)	Severine Hubscher-Davidson (School of Languages & Applied Linguistics, Languages) Wayne Taylor (School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care, Health & Social Care) Alison Higgs (School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care, Social Work) Lesley McGrath (Faculty Office, Professional Services, Curriculum) Kieran McCartney (School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sports (ECYS)) Chelle Oldham (School of Education, Childhood, Youth & Sports (ECYS))
Institute of Educational Technology (IET)	Anne Adams and Liz FitzGerald
Ireland Office (the OU in Ireland)	Please get in touch if you could be a UCU contact in Belfast or Dublin. This Rep is for those employed by the OU in Ireland unit. Staff employed by other units and resident on the island of Ireland should contact their unit / sub-unit (Faculty or School) rep.
Manchester Office	Elaine Walker
Marketing & Communications	Michael Bartlett and Maddie Buckland
Nottingham Office	Brendan Quinn
PVC (Students)	Rachel Garnham
RES - was Research & Academic Strategy	Helen Bowes-Catton
Scotland Office (the OU in Scotland)	Pete Wood, Branch President. This Rep is for those employed by the OU in Scotland unit. Staff employed by other units and resident in Scotland should contact their unit / sub-unit (Faculty or School) rep.
Wales Office (the OU in Wales)	Please get in touch if you could be a UCU contact in Cardiff. This Rep is for those employed by the OU in Wales unit. Staff employed by other units and resident in Wales should contact their unit / sub-unit (Faculty or School) rep.

Open College of the Arts (OCA) reps

Flexible Tutors	vacancy
Programme Tutors	India Ritchie
Programme Leads	Dan Robinson and Louise Cunningham
Academic-Related & Professional Services	vacancy

Open College of the Arts website

Union Learn reps

We are pleased to report that we have several Union Learning representatives trained. For queries Union Learn reps contact ucu@open.ac.uk.

These members have been trained as Union Learn reps and agreed to be named on our website:

Gerry Stroud-Campbell

Union Learn reps information on the UCU website.

Health and Safety reps

We are interested in hearing from any other members who are interested in becoming UCU Health and Safety representatives - currently these people are Health & Safety reps for the branch.

Lesley Kane
Peter Piper
Saleem Rashid
Kit Power
Caitlin Adams

Further information about Health and safety.

Health and Safety Workload Reps

Kit Power
Caitlin Adams
Jenny Kermally
Torin Grace
Francesca Benatti
Alison Higgs
Chenoa Putter

Please contact the UCU office to ask about our Health & Safety Workload reps: ucu@open.ac.uk

Pensions Reps

The branch sends representatives to the OU/Trade Unions Pension Forum, and we are always looking for members to support them through the branch’s Pensions Working Group. Reps and working group members receive training and access to the UCU national pensions email lists. Current Reps are:

Caitlin Adams
Jon Hall
Alan Carr, UCU retired member

Green Rep

The branch has multiple reps active on sustainability and Just Transition issues, with branch activities co-ordinated by Peter Wood, Branch President and national co-chair of the UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee. To attend Green Reps training, or to join the relevant branch working group, contact: ucu@open.ac.uk.

Helen Bowes-Catton