Campaigns

UCU actively campaigns on behalf of staff, both at the OU and sector-wide. You can find more about UCU's work on the national campaigns page, or learn more about our branch campaigns below:

• Stop the Cuts: Fund Higher Education NOW!
• Fighting redundancies at the OU
• Divesting from Israel and the arms trade
• Support the OU Club
• Ideas and past campaigns

Stop the Cuts: Fund Higher Education NOW!

Nationally, UCU are calling for immediate action to halt the devastating cuts sweeping across our universities. The current crisis is unsustainable, and it is vital that the government intervenes now to protect our educational institutions:

• One in every two universities is cutting staff jobs and student courses. This alarming trend is not just numbers; it represents the loss of dedicated educators and vital programmes that serve our communities.
• The funding model is failing, destabilising staff and students. The ongoing financial struggles for universities puts immense pressure on both employees and learners, leading to uncertainty and a decline in educational quality.
• The government must intervene to stop this crisis. Urgent action is required to secure commitments from university leaders to halt job cuts, redundancies, and course closures, and to improve pay and working conditions for staff.

Staff and students should not suffer the consequences for the failures of university management and previous government policies.

We are demanding a robust funding package that addresses these issues and fosters a more sustainable future for higher education. 

Sign UCU’s petition and share it with colleagues and supporters. 

Or find out more about our campaign at UCU’s national Stop the Cuts page.

Fighting redundancies at the OU 

Our members are organised and working hard to tackle restructuring and redundancy proposals across multiple units, pushing for no compulsory redundancies. We are helping staff put together counterproposals, getting answers from management, and making sure OU policy is followed.  Individual members who are affected by the restructures can receive one-to-one support and representation from branch caseworkers.

If your unit is going through a restructure now, you can get individual help on the Get Help page. To be part of a joint response, find out who your unit reps are on the Reps and Contacts page. And if you'd like to prepare by getting trained up or supporting actions to prevent redundancies at the OU, email ucu@open.ac.uk.

Divesting from Israel and the arms trade

Our branch, alongside the OU Palestine Solidarity Group and OU Friends of Palestine student group, is calling on the OU to remove its investments in companies that are complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide and occupation in Palestine, and to remove arms companies from its student-facing careers events. We believe that the OU has a legal and moral duty to divest from Israel and the arms trade, and that it cannot fulfill its mission of social justice without doing so.

Sign our petition to call on the OU to divest. If you want to get involved with our Divestment working group, email ucu@open.ac.uk.

Support the OU Club

UCU supports the OU club, which contributes to the civic life of the university, staff wellbeing, and a work-leisure balance, by providing social and recreational facilities that connect colleagues and retired staff from different areas of the OU. Affiliated clubs cover everything from potholing and table tennis, to rock and blues bands and film and theatre societies. At Walton Hall, the OU club has a BYOB social on Thursday nights with staff bands and resident DJs. You can sign up to their email list on the OU club webpage.

Ideas welcome

If you’ve got an idea for a new campaign, you might want to join one of our working groups. They can provide support to set it up, whether that’s feedback, experience, or help to share the load.

Past campaigns

Our leaflets page contains the leaflets and picket line leaflets we have handed out in previous industrial action disputes, and our current 1.3FTE campaign.