Academic-Related Professional Services (ARPS) Working Group

Academic Related Professional Staff (ARPS) Rep: Grant Buttars

ARPS (Academic Related Professional Services) members encompass a large variety of roles and responsibilities across the University. The branch’s ARPS network brings professional services members together to connect with colleagues in other roles, and with colleagues in similar roles in other parts of the university. We discuss issues and developments in our areas and roles, ask questions, keep each other up to date, and consider the branch's activity from a professional services perspective. 

The network mainly organises on Teams — please contact the branch’s ARPS officer to be added. We also have regular meetings that are advertised in the branch’s Friday emails. 

Commonly asked question for ARPS: What if I’m the only person in my team in the union?

We hear you, and while this isn’t only true of ARPS members, for some ARPS colleagues they can be in small teams or sometimes a team of one! Please consider joining the UCU ARPS Teams channel – we’re a friendly bunch. There will probably be people there working in similar roles to yours in other areas of the university, and some of our experiences are near-universal for all PS staff.  

But more importantly, be aware that you have an impact as an individual within the team, and your knowledge and expertise is valued. By being part of a union you can talk about issues that are important to you, hopefully inspiring others to join the union. A lot of us have found that once we started talking more about being part of a union, other colleagues in our teams expressed similar views or concerns, and it made them see that it is possible - and beneficial - to be a PS member in UCU.  

If you work with colleagues in academic, research, or teaching roles, you might find that they are also in UCU, and could have great conversations and develop different, sometimes deeper, working relationships with them.