Denis A Nicole (University of Southampton)

Denis A Nicole (University of Southampton) 

Election address 

I am a Reader in electronic engineering at the university of Southampton, where I am also secretary of our UCU branch and an active caseworker and H&S representative. I have previously served as branch president, southern region chair, and one term on NEC and HEC during which I worked with Janet Farrar to set up the "Stress and Bullying Working Group". At the university, I have served as program leader in electronic engineering, and develop and teach modules and laboratories in security, cryptography, computer architecture, and embedded systems. Some of these laboratories have been adopted as part of the national cybersecurity curriculum: CyBOK. My research is on the safety and security of embedded and "internet of things" devices.   

We are a large branch, but our density is still less than half of what we would expect from a "mainstream" teaching union. When recruiting, I find that that UCU's national reputation is a problem. I was shocked when I started to attend Congress; the only visible political group was the tiny Socialist Workers Party. Where is our engagement with mainstream elected politicians? Regrettably, colleagues I meet daily are convinced that UCU concentrates on the revolutionary student battles of the 1970s.  

The small turnout at UCU elections also undermines our credibility and effectiveness: I was last elected to NEC on a turnout of barely 17%. Can I implore you to use your votes this time?  

We also need to take an effective approach to divisive discourse on social media and elsewhere; verifiable facts, and honest discourse, are our trade. It is our duty to protect genuine academic independence, but without allowing a platform for the intolerant abuse we have been seeing. We are learning to "bear to hear the truth [we]'ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools", and to counteract this hostile propaganda effectively.  

I believe UCU is ill-equipped to engage directly in international politics. Our role is instead to defend our members' pay and conditions, to protect the future of tertiary education in the UK, to protect the independence of university teaching and research, and to work through the TUC on national and international affairs. Ill-judged and politically inspired legislation, and metrics in REF and TEF, have been destroying one of the great education systems of the world. For example, my own institution has just removed reference to the UNESCO "Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel" from our Statutes.  

Primarily, we need to engage effectively with the new government to protect jobs, pay,  conditions, and the quality of UK higher education.  

I will also be voting for David Bretherton, our current branch president.