Heriot-Watt University (UCU) Strike Calendar

In the ballot that ended at 5.00pm yesterday University and College Union Scotland members at the university voted to back strikes by 70%. As well as strike action, members also backed action short of strike, such as working to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and a possible marking and assessment boycott, by 85%. The mandate for strike action will last for 12 months, meaning teaching, research and student support at the university could be disrupted well into the new academic year. Branch members will now decide what further action to take.

Staff at the university were on strike last Friday and on Monday this week, making a total of 12 days lost to strikes since the dispute began. The latest round came after management rolled back on earlier promises for no compulsory redundancies in the university's Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies before spring next year, and with jobs also due to be lost, including by compulsory redundancy, in the Scholar programme which provides online learning to Scottish schools.

Members of UCU at Heriot-Watt University today begin two days of strike action in a dispute over job cuts and possible compulsory redundancies. Staff will be on picket lines during the morning at the main entrance to the university campus. Staff at the university have taken 10 days of strike action since March but recent strikes planned for June were called off in last minute talks when a commitment was made for no compulsory redundancies in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies before spring 2027. The union said that the promise has not been kept and that management were now looking at possible compulsory redundancies. The union said that management reneging on promises meant that the strikes were inevitable and the fault of management.

Jobs are also being cut at the long-running Scholar programme which provides web-based learning to schools and which is facing closure. Despite more staff at Scholar applying for voluntary redundancy than management were looking for, there remain plans for compulsory redundancies there too. As well as taking two days of strike action, members are also voting in a ballot to extend the mandate for industrial action. The new ballot, which ends on 12 August, is necessary because mandates for strike action are time limited. Recent changes to trade union legislation means that the new ballot would last for a full 12 months leaving the threat of further strikes at the university into the 2026/27 academic year likely.