News & Analysis
Briefing for MSPs on UCU Edinburgh’s ongoing dispute with University management
UCU Edinburgh Co-Presidents have written to MSPs today on behalf of UCU Edinburgh members with a briefing on our dispute. UCU’s asks are simple: we want University leadership that prioritises staff working conditions and student learning conditions. Higher education is a public good, and universities should be run as public institutions, not private corporations.
“you think it doesn’t hurt?” UCU Edinburgh comment on Peter Mathieson’s announcement not to seek a third tenure
UCU Edinburgh welcomes the news of Principal Peter Mathieson stepping down, and we want to encourage him to do the right thing now: start listening to the voices of staff and students; negotiate with UCU; stop the cuts and make a proper proposal to end the strike; and ultimately resolve this dispute that is entirely of the University management's making. Alternatively: resign immediately.
Staff at the University of Edinburgh start five-week strike
UCU SCOTLAND PRESS RELEASE Monday 28 September 2026
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the University of Edinburgh today (Monday) start five-weeks of strikes in a dispute over £140million cuts and compulsory redundancies. The strike follows the announcement two weeks ago that 90 programmes at the university face closure.
900+ at inaugural Student & Staff Assembly!
More than 900 students and staff gathered for the inaugural Student-Staff Assembly on Thursday 24 September.
Squid Game: Staff Cuts and Your Education
A message for our students about the planned strike action in Semester 1, 2026-27
Five-week strike at Edinburgh University at start of new academic term
UCU SCOTLAND PRESS RELEASE - 11:00 AM Thursday 17 September 2026
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) Scotland at Edinburgh University will strike for 25 days over five weeks from 28 September in a long running dispute over £140m cuts and 1,800 job losses.
Invest in Staff, Divest from Genocide
As the University rents out its spaces and reaps profits from the festival season, staff and students have come together behind the campaign JOBS NOT GENOCIDE to fight against a senior management that complicitly continues investing over 50 millions in companies and assets involved in Israel’s genocide, mass atrocities and colonisation of Palestine, while it simultaneously pushes ahead with plans that could see more than 2,000 jobs cut, with an estimated 1000 already lost.
Depreciating the University of Edinburgh into the Ground
The University of Edinburgh has published its annual report for 2024-2025, including the audited financial statement. In this post, we dig deeper into why some of the University’s claims about expenditure and income conceal the full story.claim.
The Academic Contribution Framework: a flawed, discriminatory response to a failure of management’s making
The ACF is the mechanism by which management will size up workers for redundancy targets that we already know are arbitrary. The ACF is obviously bad. It will be personally devastating for many colleagues. It is discriminatory. If the process is allowed to continue, it will bring about redundancies that are illegal. Longer term, it will also bring about a university that will be badly placed to meet the needs of future students precisely because it has been warped by its own perverse metrics.
Behind management’s latest moves: large scale compulsory redundancies coming soon
With hundreds of jobs already lost, a further 1,000+ jobs are on the line
Organising against the far right and seeking institutional support
We encourage all members to participate in UCU Scotland’s upcoming event “Organising against the far right” on Monday 13 October 6-7pm, online. You will hear from UCU and student reps, antiracist activists, and community organisers, sharing ideas and actions for you to take in your own branch and community.
Our struggles are connected: from divestment to staff cuts
‘We stand with you because your fight for fair work is a fight for the soul of this University. We ask you to stand with us because our fight for ethical investment is a fight for its conscience.’
—Ben Law, EUJPS at UCUE strike rally