LSE UCU Solidarity with Leicester and Sheffield branches under attack
LSE UCU members approved a request to donate to branches carrying out strike action in response to cuts across Higher Education, at the 30 October 2025 branch meeting.
The LSE UCU committee has now responded by sending £200 each to Leicester UCU and Sheffield UCU branches. We also invite LSE UCU members to support Coventry UCU by participating in the UCU vote of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor of Coventry University in response to compulsory redundancies and an escalation of subsidiarisation.
We summarise the reports of strikes at Leicester and Sheffield Universities below. It is an increasingly bleak portrait of cuts across the sector.
Leicester UCU strikes
University of Leicester has launched a redundancy programme with the goal of cutting the staffing budget by £11m., leading Leicester UCU to go on strike.
Six academic areas have been targeted for potential redundancies — Chemistry; Geography, Geology & the Environment (GGE); Modern Languages; History; Film Studies; and the School of Education. Hundreds of professional services staff across the university have also been through a pre-change engagement process, which may also lead to redundancies.
Leicester University executive has already announced the first compulsory redundancy programme for the new academic year—targeting a group of academic-related professional services staff in the Division of Biomedical Services (DBS).
In the ballot for industrial action held over the summer, there was an impressive 62% turnout of which 79.5% voted in favour of strike action and 87.0% in favour of action short of a strike, leading to 3 consecutive weeks starting the 29th of September and ending on 17 October. This meant considerable financial loss for hundreds of members, as well as being a morally challenging period for them.
There is a lot of information on their website, on Facebook, Instagram, X, and Bluesky accounts already, so give them a follow to receive all the latest, including what each day of strike looks like.
Sheffield UCU strikes
Sheffield’s University Executive Board is driving a sweeping programme of cuts and restructurings without clear strategy or credible financial need.
Five academic schools were first pushed into review processes and invited to consider voluntary severance; five more were later added. Although the university had already met most of its declared £23 million savings target, leadership extended the target period and signalled further reductions.
The Sheffield UCU branch has pointed out that a university with healthy reserves, low debt, and an operating surplus can only be choosing this level of austerity for its own financial benefit. The result is a group of staff treated as dispensable and with workloads stretched thin.
Sheffield UCU members voted decisively for industrial action, with four weeks of strike days declared across November and December 2025. Action Short of a Strike begins on 17 November, including refusal to cover for vacancies, for absent colleagues or for duties shifted by restructuring; refusal to reschedule or share materials for classes lost to strike days; and withdrawal from voluntary tasks and work on personal devices.
More information is available on the Sheffield UCU website and Bluesky account.
