Bijan Parsia (University of Manchester)

Bijan Parsia (University of Manchester) 

Election address 

I am a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. I am on NEC as the Disabled Members Rep for HE, working closely with the current Disabled Members Rep for FE, Pat Roche, and the Disabled Members Standing Committee.  

I have lifelong social anxiety and developed arthritis and major depression during my PhD. I fortunately won the career lottery after a lot of precarity, though that did involve switching fields (philosophy to computer science) and countries (US to UK).  

This will be my third consecutive run for NEC and second for Disabled Member rep. Here's deep dive on my activities this term:  

https://tinyurl.com/BPucuRecord23-24  

I wrote a white paper for NEC and UCU staff trying to produce a common understanding of accessibility:  

https://tinyurl.com/ucuAccess4all  

I am hopeful that this coming Congress will be the first hybrid one enabling more people to participate in the fundamental policy setting event of UCU.   

I was denied participation in Congress 2024 due to being within the quarantine period of COVID. While it was right for me not to attend in person for the prevention of COVID transmission, it was not right that I was denied my representative function. Similarly, it is not right that others with disabilities, or caring responsibilities, or job conflicts, or any of a range of factors be denied the ability to participate.  

Hybrid is not perfect nor is it the only alternative, but it is the compromise position we have reached and even that is being resisted.  

HE is on fire with the prior Government's long term engineered crisis of funding coming to fruition while the current Government fails to even properly acknowledge the problem. Employers cannot fix this themselves — and not just due to their abundant lack of strategic or managerial skill. We need systematic reform for a systematic problem. With projections of 10,000 jobs to be lost to redundancy in the coming year, we need the Government to act and we need the public to understand our value. Our campaigns need to be political as much as industrial.   

I have pushed for alternative strategies and will continue to do so:  

https://tinyurl.com/ucuNewStrategy  

We see in FE, prison education, etc., that many employers do not have clear policies with respect to disability and reasonable adjustments. Having a policy is a foundation for getting adjustments and for effective legal action. I hope to help enable branches to negotiate such policies.  

I'm a founding member of UCU Commons, please vote for our slate:  

https://ucucommons.org/nec25   

I endorse Dyfrig Jones for Vice President and Andrew Feeney for Honorary Treasurer.   

Find me on Bluesky @bparsia.bsky.social