The department has formally withdrawn the redundancy notices for the history staff. We will continue to monitor the upcoming contract renewals to ensure these positions remain secure.
May 24, 2024
Final supporters
As a student body, we are deeply saddened to hear of the potential redundancies of history staff. We have been taught by these lecturers, and personally know them to be hard working, passionate, committed, kind and incredibly inspirational. This has led us to question the justification behind such redundancies, and, more broadly, whether we can place our faith in UCL as an academic body.
As students, we are sickened by the behaviour of the department toward its staff. We accept that UCL is a business; however, we would expect a department which ostensibly prides itself on its progressive values to treat its staff with dignity and respect. In particular, we believe that the currentactions of the UCL department will seriously affect the career prospects of the staff involved. We understand that research is integral to getting a good job; in employing staff on teaching-only contracts for several (in some cases 5+) years, their ability to produce research has been seriously limited.
Furthermore, making such large numbers of academics redundant at the same time significantly reduced the range of modules available to current and prospective undergraduate and graduate students, who have joined UCL History and then planned and funded their studies in the legitimate expectation and representation that a sufficiently diverse range of courses would continue to be available for the duration of their studies, which, in many cases, will now have to be reconsidered.
UCL currently places seventh in Britain for its history course, according to the Complete University Guide (as of 15 March 2024). However, we wonder whether it will be possible for UCL to keep this impressive standing if it purges itself of experienced lecturers. This incident leads us to question whether UCL genuinely values the academic goals of its pupils.
Ultimately, this is a situation which will negatively affect everyone, including UCL as an institution.This may be economically beneficial in the short term but ultimately will erode the university from the inside. The loss of expertise will be irreplaceable, and graduate lecturers necessarily should be supported by more experienced staff, not left to operate without support.This will be extremely detrimental to student experience, as students will lose personal tutors, and potentially miss modules they specially applied to UCL in order to be able to attend.
The reason that so many history students choose UCL is its academic prestige. Please, keep UCL as a body which values academic work, merit, and student experience at its heart.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
April 3, 2024
April 1, 2024
We are approaching the 250 signature threshold which I require to trigger a formal follow-up meeting with the department administration. Please circulate this link to your department colleagues immediately so we can reach this baseline before the end of the business day.
Reached 100 supporters
March 18, 2024
85 Comments
This is an absolute travesty. History as an academic subject thrives given the diversity of teaching staff. The very idea of ‘redundancies’ are repugnant and reeks of corporatist motivations which have no place in academia.
Given the limited amount of contact hours at UCL the ability to form a personal connection with module tutors is vital and the capricious way that lecturers are being made redundant will have a severely adverse effect on the quality of student experience at UCL
Joe Couzens’ module was one of my favorite. I remember him saying in 2021 how he was afraid this type of thing could happen due to the awful type of contract he was on.
I am a postgraduate student in MA History paying outrageously expensive international fees. Where is the money even going? If you let go of the best academics of our department, what are we even here for? This is institution is not holding up to its promises. Do better.
I am deeply saddened and disappointed to hear about this. It is especially shocking to see that all three of my tutors from this term are included in the list. Jack, Tom and Alessandro have all been extremely supportive during my time at UCL and their knowledge and expertise should not be thrown away.
I feel sorry for our History colleagues and for all the staff employed on teaching only contracts, but also disappointed by UCU. This History Department should not even dream of being able to carry out such an unfair culling of staff, and would not, if we had a union branch determined to really fight for the work conditions of its members.
Sad to see our colleagues in History not being valued as they deserve.
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The department has formally withdrawn the redundancy notices for the history staff. We will continue to monitor the upcoming contract renewals to ensure these positions remain secure.
May 24, 2024
Final supporters
As a student body, we are deeply saddened to hear of the potential redundancies of history staff. We have been taught by these lecturers, and personally know them to be hard working, passionate, committed, kind and incredibly inspirational. This has led us to question the justification behind such redundancies, and, more broadly, whether we can place our faith in UCL as an academic body.
As students, we are sickened by the behaviour of the department toward its staff. We accept that UCL is a business; however, we would expect a department which ostensibly prides itself on its progressive values to treat its staff with dignity and respect. In particular, we believe that the currentactions of the UCL department will seriously affect the career prospects of the staff involved. We understand that research is integral to getting a good job; in employing staff on teaching-only contracts for several (in some cases 5+) years, their ability to produce research has been seriously limited.
Furthermore, making such large numbers of academics redundant at the same time significantly reduced the range of modules available to current and prospective undergraduate and graduate students, who have joined UCL History and then planned and funded their studies in the legitimate expectation and representation that a sufficiently diverse range of courses would continue to be available for the duration of their studies, which, in many cases, will now have to be reconsidered.
UCL currently places seventh in Britain for its history course, according to the Complete University Guide (as of 15 March 2024). However, we wonder whether it will be possible for UCL to keep this impressive standing if it purges itself of experienced lecturers. This incident leads us to question whether UCL genuinely values the academic goals of its pupils.
Ultimately, this is a situation which will negatively affect everyone, including UCL as an institution.This may be economically beneficial in the short term but ultimately will erode the university from the inside. The loss of expertise will be irreplaceable, and graduate lecturers necessarily should be supported by more experienced staff, not left to operate without support.This will be extremely detrimental to student experience, as students will lose personal tutors, and potentially miss modules they specially applied to UCL in order to be able to attend.
The reason that so many history students choose UCL is its academic prestige. Please, keep UCL as a body which values academic work, merit, and student experience at its heart.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
April 3, 2024
April 1, 2024
We are approaching the 250 signature threshold which I require to trigger a formal follow-up meeting with the department administration. Please circulate this link to your department colleagues immediately so we can reach this baseline before the end of the business day.
Reached 100 supporters
March 18, 2024
85 Comments
I have been engaged with the various branches of UCL history over 40 years and as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society have been able to access the excellent library facilities. I am appalled that the current management would want to gut such a fine institution.
This is an absolute travesty. History as an academic subject thrives given the diversity of teaching staff. The very idea of ‘redundancies’ are repugnant and reeks of corporatist motivations which have no place in academia.
Given the limited amount of contact hours at UCL the ability to form a personal connection with module tutors is vital and the capricious way that lecturers are being made redundant will have a severely adverse effect on the quality of student experience at UCL
Joe Couzens’ module was one of my favorite. I remember him saying in 2021 how he was afraid this type of thing could happen due to the awful type of contract he was on.
I am a postgraduate student in MA History paying outrageously expensive international fees. Where is the money even going? If you let go of the best academics of our department, what are we even here for? This is institution is not holding up to its promises. Do better.
I am deeply saddened and disappointed to hear about this. It is especially shocking to see that all three of my tutors from this term are included in the list. Jack, Tom and Alessandro have all been extremely supportive during my time at UCL and their knowledge and expertise should not be thrown away.
I feel sorry for our History colleagues and for all the staff employed on teaching only contracts, but also disappointed by UCU. This History Department should not even dream of being able to carry out such an unfair culling of staff, and would not, if we had a union branch determined to really fight for the work conditions of its members.
Sad to see our colleagues in History not being valued as they deserve.
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I have been engaged with the various branches of UCL history over 40 years and as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society have been able to access the excellent library facilities. I am appalled that the current management would want to gut such a fine institution.