Reminder – General Meeting, Tuesday 12th May at 1pm
This is a reminder that a General Meeting of UCL UCU is taking place Tuesday 12th May 2026, at 1pm.
No amendments to the motion ‘Against UCL’s surveillance of students and staff’ (see Appendix 1) were submitted.
As only one motion is on the agenda, it is proposed to spend the remaining time discussing campaigns on MyAppraisal and the ‘EASE’ restructuring.
1. MyAppraisal boycott continues
The boycott of MyAppraisal is continuing. Please use the Word forms where possible and see these Frequently Asked Questions.
Branch officers received a proposed revision of the UCL Appraisal Policy on Friday which appears to show that UCL Management are beginning to recognise some of the staff concerns we have raised. We will report at the General Meeting.
2. EASE campaign update
EASE continues to be rolled out across Faculties.
Whilst UCU has been largely successful in preventing compulsory redundancies, evidence about the negative consequences predicted by UCU continues to mount (see also the EASE campaign website).
Based on UCU analysis of a recently released Institute of Education ‘EASE Accountability Framework’ (IOE EAF), numerous other staff should expect an increase in workload. Our analysis compared academic staff programme roles identified in the IOE EAF with current IOE job descriptions, and found that the new framework allocates a large number of additional academic administrative tasks to academic staff.
These tasks are not recognised in the job description or in the workload allocation for these academic posts. Meanwhile, multiple PS staff are facing downgrading based on the removal of these duties from their job descriptions.
Colleagues should anticipate that their own faculty or department may be preparing a similar ‘EASE Accountability Framework’.
The draft minutes of the previous Extraordinary General Meeting are available here.
All members are warmly encouraged to attend the General Meeting.
UCL UCU Executive Committee
Appendix 1:
Motion against UCL’s surveillance of students and staff
This branch notes:
- A joint investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates has found that twelve British universities, including UCL, paid a total of £443,943 between Jan 2022 and March 2025 to security firm Horus to collect data on pro-Palestine students and staff.
- Horus monitored social media feeds of student and staff and conducted secret counter-terror threat assessments that it submitted to universities
- UCL has refused to respond to requests for comment by the investigators
- UCL has a history of repression of the Palestine movement, including the most recent arrest of PhD student and UCU member Jamie Bradshaw, which this branch condemned
- Jo Grady has stated it is ‘shameful’ that universities have ‘wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds spying on their own students’.
This branch believes:
- Paying a security firm run by former military intelligence to surveil students and staff is a blatant infringement of UCL’s commitment to foster ‘a culture of trust and mutual accountability’
- This is an outrageous misuse of funds that could’ve been used to support UCL’s services and academic community
- UCL’s refusal to respond shows it has no interest in holding itself accountable to those affected
- This once again sets a dangerous precedent for how dissent and protest at UCL may be handled by university leadership and management
This branch resolves to:
- Condemn UCL’s use of security firms to monitor student and staff protesters, whether for Palestine or other causes
- Demand that UCL leadership respond to these findings and disclose exactly how much UCL has paid to Horus cumulatively
- Demand that UCL is transparent about any current and future partnerships with security firms to monitor students and staff, and that UCU is consulted before any such partnerships proceed
- Ensure UCL has ended all payment to Horus or other security firms and has stopped gathering data on students and staff exercising their freedom of speech to stand up against genocide
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