The University and College Union (UCU) have announced their members will be striking for 5 weeks, starting from Monday 28 September.
The proposed strike action is an escalation of the year-long dispute between the University of Edinburgh’s senior management and the UCU over the university’s restructuring programme, which so far has led to the scrapping of 90 degree-programmes, and up to 1,800 job losses.
The UCU told The Student: “Our members voted to take a potential five weeks of industrial action from 28 September unless ongoing negotiations result in the University of Edinburgh’s senior management meeting our demands.”
The demands include ruling out compulsory redundancies, avoiding staffing cuts by prioritising savings in non-staff budgets, ensuring staff workloads remain within contracted hours and halting hidden redundancies.
The announcement has caused widespread concern within the student population, many of whom were affected by last term’s marking boycotts.
One LLC student said: “I commute from Glasgow, which means I will waste a lot of my time coming to classes only to discover that I have no one here to support me.”
“Some of my teachers have also suggested that the resources on Learn might be removed to kind of emphasise the impact of the strikes. It’s only going to punish students because that doesn’t affect university management.”
One fourth-year student commented: “My dissertation supervisor is striking so I’m really concerned about how I’m going to write it without any advice.”
In response to The Student asking how the university specifically plans to support students undertaking dissertations, Vice Chancellor Peter Mathieson reiterated his official statement:
“I want to assure our students that our priority is to minimise disruption to their teaching, and we will continue to support them as best as we can.
“While we recognise the right our staff have to take this action, we will continue to do everything we can to mitigate the impacts of that action on our students.”
The UCU have also criticized senior management’s lack of transparency regarding the restructuring programme, claiming their members have been “sidelined” from key processes and that communication from senior management has been “inconsistent or non-existent.”
Concerns have also been raised about the involvement of consulting company ‘Nous,’ which has advised universities across the UK, Canada and Australia on restructuring programmes.
Dubbed ‘Nousferatu’ by academics in reference to the famous vampire, the company has been accused of “extracting the lifeblood from universities” and pushing public institutions towards a corporate model.
An investigation by The Ferret revealed that Edinburgh University has paid Nous over £750,000 across a four-year period, including £250,000 between January and September 2025, directly preceding the university’s announcement of a ‘financial gap’ and the need for cuts.
In response to The Ferret’s investigation, an Edinburgh University spokesperson said: “The University has engaged the Nous Group to provide insight and benchmarking into sector norms around strategic and operational practices.
“This is to ensure that the University’s practices remain effective, sustainable and aligned with the University’s long-term vision and goals, and able to deliver continuous improvements and lasting benefits for its students, staff and wider community.”
Image by Mark Chan for The Student
