Four days of strike action begins at Bournemouth University this week

The walkout follows an overwhelming 75% yes vote in favour of strike action with 91% backing action short of strike on a turnout of 78%. There will be pickets across multiple campuses on the strike dates.

The dispute is over plans to cut 116 academic staff next month (by Thursday 31 July). Bournemouth leaders claim they need to make £20m cuts due to a fall in student numbers. This would see 15 courses permanently closed, including undergraduate degrees in English, politics and anthropology. Overall, including academic and professional services staff, the university is planning to slash more than 200 jobs.  

University bosses also want to slash academics' research time and are threatening to tear up union-agreed terms and conditions such as how workloads are managed. UCU said striking staff are standing up for the future of Bournemouth University itself, which is threatened by the rush to cut staff and courses, a path being trodden by management despite the university having been in surplus and holding over £150m in net financial assets.

Several of the strike days coincide with scheduled exam boards, meaning the university's ability to award degrees is likely to be disrupted and delayed. Alongside the strike action and commencing on the same day, staff will undertake continuous industrial action short of a strike (ASOS).  

ASOS, which will further disrupt day-to-day functioning at Bournemouth, will take the form of working to contract; not undertaking any voluntary activities; not covering for absent colleagues; not uploading materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action; and not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action. 

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'Alison Honour enjoyed a long career leading arts and humanities faculties, yet within months of becoming Bournemouth vice-chancellor is overseeing a devastating attack on just those subjects. Our members will not stand by while they and their colleagues' livelihoods and vocations are threatened. In defending themselves, staff are also protecting the future of Bournemouth University from this corporate-style arson. The whole union is behind them.' 

Bournemouth UCU branch chair William Proctor said: 'We have overwhelmingly voted for strike action to stop university bosses destroying the institution that staff have done so much to build. If the vice-chancellor and her team succeed in pushing through these attacks, it will not only ruin the livelihoods of more than 100 of our academic colleagues but render the university unrecognisable, irreparably harming students' education, more akin to an old polytechnic than a university. Adding insult to injury, management also want to degrade our research time and further increase our workloads. We have also reported the university to the Office for Students for breaching articles of governance and other agreements. We will be standing firm on the picket line unless management drops these disgraceful plans.'