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Further education and prisons: making the case for change

If you work in further education (FE) or prison education, you can help take our message to the heart of government with the lobby of Parliament on Wednesday 23 October (17:00-19:00). FE and prison education staff will be meeting their local MPs to ask them to support our New Deal for FE and Prison education: unlocking futures campaigns. Please let us know you can come by .

• Unlocking futures sets out Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's vision for prison education and will be a crucial part of any attempt to address the crisis in prisons and rehabilitation of offenders. Our campaign calls for action to address funding, recruitment and retention, and the pay and conditions of prison education staff. 
• Our New Deal for FE campaign is gaining support from across the sector and beyond with  calling for national bargaining and an end to the low pay, neglect and underfunding of colleges in England. 

Further strike action at Education Training Collective

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members at Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy, and Redcar and Cleveland College--all part of Education Training Collective (ETC)--will down tools on Thursday 10 October in a long running dispute over pay. Please consider donating to their strike fund; .

Update on higher education pay and working conditions negotiations

Negotiations on the 2024/25 pay claim were concluded. Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ and the other campus unions received the final offer from Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). A branch delegate meeting (BDM) took place on 24 September and you could see results of the voting here.

The elected representatives on Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's higher education committee (HEC) are meeting on 27 September to determine the next steps. We will share decisions made by HEC as soon as practicable.

Reclaim Higher Education updates

Please support the following branches where Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members are continuing to defend jobs and education:

• University of Kent: a strike ballot opened on 2 September and will close on 4 October; Kent Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ is in dispute over the employer's failure to rule out compulsory redundancies as well as the employer's failure to guarantee that no staff will suffer detriment to their workload
• Open University: OU has begun a collective consultation on proposals to fire and rehire a group of OU associate lecturers if they do not 'agree' to have their working hours and pay reduced. 
• Sheffield Hallam University: strike action planned for 23-26 September was suspended in the light of an improved offer from SHU's executive board. SHU Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members are voting on whether to accept or reject the offer. .

Nominations for Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ NEC, officer and trustee positions

Nominations are now open for the UK-wide positions of Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ vice president (becoming president in 2027-28), honorary treasurer, trustees, and for more than 20 positions on Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's national executive committee (NEC). Nominations are also sought for officer and committee member positions on Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ Scotland's executive. . The deadline for completed nominations is Monday 11 November at 17:00. Elections take place in the new year.

Scottish higher education policy conference

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ Scotland is hosting a conference on Scottish higher education policy, entitled 'Scottish higher education in 2024: what next?' The conference will be held at the University of Edinburgh on Wednesday 30 October. Themes include academic freedom and the IHRA definition of antisemitism; higher education funding in Scotland; housing; race and higher education; university governance; the Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ Scotland Green Network; and fair work. 

Equality groups conference 2024

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's annual equality conference is an opportunity to discuss and agree strategies to progress equality issues at work. The 2024 conference will be held from 28 to 30 November at  in a hybrid format.

The conference will hold five separate half-day conferences for Black, disabled, LGBT+, migrant and women members, with a joint plenary session for all equality strands. For more information and registration, please use this link which will take you to the main equality groups conference page. Registration deadline is 28 October at 18:00.

Higher education redundancies survey

The Open University Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ branch is coordinating a survey of Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members about redundancies in higher education, and . The survey closes on Monday 14 October.

Artificial intelligence survey: share your views

Over 1,000 Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members have already completed our AI survey, but we want to hear from the rest of our members on this issue too. Members in further, prison and adult and community education are particularly encouraged to . Tell us how your students are using AI, if you are using it, and how your employer is responding. Your responses will inform the work of Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ on AI.

Climate and ecological emergency meeting

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's annual meeting on climate and ecological emergency will take place on Zoom on Thursday 14 November (11:00-16:00) and you can find full details including registration here. Registration deadline is Thursday 7 November at 17:00.

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ continuing professional development workshops

Join us for a CPD workshop this October. These 90-minute online interactive workshops are free and open to all Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members:

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Please look out for our Monday CPD email with details of all the online workshops running this term.

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ at the Labour Party conference 2024

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's demands were taken to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool earlier this week. General secretary Jo Grady appeared live on Newsnight and LBC programmes to make the case of greater investment in post-16 education. You can  (from 21st minute onwards) or .

A successful Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ event was also held which set out a bold new vision to a packed audience and involved general secretaries from CWU, NEU, NASUWT and representatives from NUS and TUC. You could also read Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ's responses to speeches by Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson.  to increase taxes on profiteering businesses and help solve the university funding crisis.

In line with Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ policy, Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ is not affiliated to, and makes no donations to, any political party. Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ will continue to work with all parties across the UK to protect and improve the working conditions of Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ members in post-16 education.

Ceasefire NOW!

Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ joins with many others in Palestine, the UK, and beyond to reiterate the demands for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, unrestricted access to humanitarian aid, and the lifting of the siege of Gaza. 

We are very concerned by the sharp rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia across the UK and beyond since October. We restate our unwavering opposition to all forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia--hate has no place on our campuses or in our society. Ó£»¨¶¯Âþ also has a dedicated 'Ceasefire Now' web area where you can find information and resources.

Celebrate World Teachers' Day, 5 October

Overworked, undervalued, and underpaid, more and more teachers are leaving the profession they love. At the same time, fewer young people enter the teaching profession. The result is a global shortage of over 44 million teachers, a crisis that puts education at risk.

This World Teachers' Day highlights the need of robust social dialogue with teachers everywhere. The 2024 celebrations focuses on 'Valuing teacher voices: towards a new social contract for education'. .