PLEASE ATTEND, PLEASE VOTE! Academic Board Special Meeting Fri. 16 MAY 11.30AM

FAO UCU Academic Board member (for information, to non-AB members)

We are writing to alert you that a Special Meeting of the Academic Board has been called to discuss the proposals from management to restrict access to Statute 18 due process safeguards. These are matters that directly impact our members’ terms and conditions, and it is crucial that our members on the Academic Board ATTEND the meeting and VOTE on the motions.

The meeting is on the 16th May at 11.30-13.30 

You should have received an email inviting you to the meeting (with a link) from OGC.secretariat with the subject line: “Academic Board: agenda & papers for Special Meeting, Fri 16 May 2025”

We are asking our members on the Academic Board to treat this as a matter of priority, and to vote in favour of both motions:

Motion 1: This rejects the idea that robust due process protections can be “triaged” between cases that are about academic freedom and those that are not (HR cannot say how this will be done.) Managers have found that UCL’s standard policies can be readily used to dismiss, and in some cases, initiate career-ending processes against colleagues. This is not currently possible for academic staff thanks to Statute 18 safeguards that limit ‘just cause for dismissal’ and provide a special Tribunal with AB representation, a right to be accompanied by a lawyer and an appeals process with a legal professional. Where there is evidence of guilt, such safeguards do not protect the guilty, but they ensure cases are fairly heard and addressed.

Motion 2: For too long, staff whose contracts are not officially “academic” (according to UCL), in particular, academic staff on teaching contracts or on research contracts, have not had access to these due process safeguards. At the very moment that the Academic Board is preparing to advise UCL’s Council to redress this injustice, UCL management want to remove these safeguards (except for those cases they say exceptionally feature “freedom issues”), thus making access to these safeguards more restrictive. This is a classic case of ‘levelling down’ when they could level up access to these safeguards. Motion 2 explicitly advises that the safeguards are extended to all staff undertaking academic work. It also advises that any future proposals should be developed together with the representatives of the Academic Board.

You can read a letter has now been signed by 501 members of the Academic Board explaining the problems with the management proposals and putting forward the motions. Here are 10 FAQs that explain what is at stake.

It is very important that this AB meeting is well-attended and as many people as possible take part and vote. Colleagues may remember that we managed to stop the Provost, Malcolm Grant, pushing through a removal of Statute 18 in 2013. It is time to take a stance again, and this time make sure the Statute applies to all academic staff!