Sophia Woodman (University of Edinburgh)

Sophia Woodman (University of Edinburgh) 

Election address 

UK higher education is a binfire: the differential impacts of marketisation are driving a race to the bottom in working conditions. The fight to reclaim HE from the bean counters who are wrecking it has to be fought at multiple scales and sites.   

Given the funding crisis in HE, and in education more generally, national action is essential. We have to be able to move governments as well as employers, including governments of devolved nations, to address sector finances. We need UK-wide action to have input into the regulatory frameworks for the sector, such as reinstating caps on recruitment to spread students more equitably across the sector.   

I'm in my second year as branch president at UCU Edinburgh (first year as co-president). Our local joint unions workload campaign (launched summer 2024) is simultaneously a way of re-engaging members, working with other campus unions, demonstrating that unions work for all staff and local bargaining to improve our members' working conditions. UCU's training programme and workload campaign materials have been invaluable for us.   

If elected, I will advocate for more support for local organizing and member engagement. Since 2023, in my branch we send motions to all members to vote on via e-survey if the GM in which the motion has been debated agrees. This is supported by most members, as it means everyone can have input on key branch decisions, even if they can't come to a meeting. If elected, I would push for a revision of the branch model rules and national meeting arrangements to facilitate engagement using some of these methods.  

UCU Edinburgh works closely with our student union and activist student groups to develop shared understandings of how marketized HE exploits both staff and students. I've campaigned with hourly-paid casualized colleagues to be paid for all their work and receive paid training. I've been a strong advocate for international students, who are often treated as cash cows and subjected to casual racism. I've been involved in campaigning against Prevent and the hostile environment.   

I am a senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and, among other things, I write on how the forces of securitization and marketization threaten academic freedom in China and the UK. Asserting academic freedom as self-governance and the right to criticize the institution in which one works must be central in what UCU does. I am proud of UCU's record of standing for trans inclusion and Palestine solidarity, and would insist this continues.   

I am a member of UCU Commons. Please vote for our slate: https://ucucommons.org/nec25   

I'm endorsing Dyfrig Jones for VP, and for UCU Scotland, Chris O'Donnell for President and Ann Gow for Secretary.