If your academics are UCU members and taking part in the strike you might turn up to a timetabled class and your lecturer is not there.
If you have any concerns about the impact this may have on your academic progression, you can get in touch with our academic advice team via Advice (greenwichsu.co.uk)
If you would like to raise wider concerns around the action, please do not hesitate to get in touch with SU President Anuj Baral - A.Baral@greenwich.ac.uk
Greenwich Students’ Union will continue to update this page as we know more.
If your wellbeing or health condition has been adversely and disproportionality affected because of the industrial action and you can evidence this you may be able to claim EC's.
Get in touch with our Advice team who can advise if your circumstances might be relevant.
Jargon busters
Here are some terms you may read and hear over the coming weeks, and what it all means!
UCU - Universities & Colleges Union. The trade union for higher education workers, including professional services staff, academics and postgraduate research students. Their Higher Education Committee, a group made up of representatives (or reps) elected by UCU to represent their Higher Education members, has launched both strike ballots.
UUK - stands for Universities’ UK, which is the representative body for universities across the UK. They are leading the negotiations with UCU about the amount employers and staff should pay into USS pensions.
CMA - Competition and Markets Authority. They are an independent non-ministerial department linked to the UK government. They're responsible for ensuring that consumers get a good deal when buying goods and services, and businesses operate within the law.
OfS - Office for Students. They are the independent regulator of higher education in England.
OIA or OIAHE - Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, an independent body set up to review student complaints.
Casualisation - refers to academic staff being employed on ‘casual’ contracts, for example for a half-day of teaching per week, rather than on an annually-salaried basis.
Joint Negotiating Committee - this is where UCU and UUK meet to discuss pensions.
RPI - the Retail Price Index. this is a way of measuring inflation by charting the cost of a shopping basket of standard goods each year. Therefore, if someone’s wages are increasing ‘below RPI,’ the increase in their pay is not going up at the same rate as the cost of a weekly shop.
Picket - a picket is a person or group of people who stand outside a workplace or other venue as a protest or to try to persuade others not to enter during a strike.
Picket line - a picket line is a boundary established by workers on strike, especially at the entrance to the place of work, which others are asked not to cross.
SMT - SMT stands for Senior Management Team. They are the top management of a university. They may be referred to as SLT also (Senior Leadership Team).
Ballot - a system of voting anonymously and in writing on a particular issue.
Action short of a strike - where workers take action such as working to rule, go-slows, overtime bans or callout bans.
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