A student-staff rally took place at Sheffield Student’s Union on Friday 12 December, marking the end of a prolonged period of UCU strike action at the University of Sheffield.

David Hayes, President of the UCU Sheffield branch and a senior lecturer in Law, spoke about how the rally is a “great opportunity to hear what’s going on for staff and students.” 

He said: “We are fighting against job cuts and increasing workload and the reduction of the quality of education.”

Industrial action took place in protest of compulsory redundancies, excessive workloads and cost-cutting.

Mr Hayes feels staff “are being asked to do more and more and more, with less and less and less.” He is particularly concerned about the quality of education on offer.

Students, who are already battling high tuition fees in a cost of living crisis, faced 16 days of interrupted teaching.

Green Party councillor Brian Holmshaw spoke at the rally, representing the University’s ward of Broomhill and Sharrow Vale.

“I am here to support this meeting, a united front against the proposed cuts to staffing and against the closure of the undergraduate and postgraduate courses,” said Mr Holmshaw. “We are against cultural vandalism of removing University courses.”

The University has been in regular dialogue with UCU to try to find a resolution to the dispute and have made a number of offers to try and avoid industrial action.

One anonymous student said: “I am terrified about the future of my course.”

The offers included a commitment to making no further compulsory redundancies for an extended period of time. 

UCU members have not yet accepted these offers and continue to take strike action and ‘action short of a strike’, including refusing to mark assessments outside of their official working hours.

Recently the University of Nottingham announced the suspension of entries into language courses, further concerning UCU members who worry the risk of redundancies is only getting worse.

In April, the University of Nottingham also announced more than 250 non-academic roles could be cut, with the vice-chancellor saying it was “grappling with significant financial challenges.”

The current mandate for strike action began on 30 September and will last for six months.

More on this to come.