Striking Thoughts
Preparations for next week’s 24-hour strike by members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers are well under way at Maynooth University. Hi-vis jackets, armbands and megaphones arranged, legal briefings delivered, and a picket roster being organized. The one thing not under control is the weather, and my memories of past experiences on picket duty are strongly linked with cold and rainy weather. I’ll be leading the morning shift on Wednesday so will just have to see how it goes.
Meanwhile, staff at Nottingham University are on strike until December 11th. Despite protests, the Management there has decided to carry on with a programme of course closures and redundancies that will cost over 500 people their jobs and lead to the closure of, for example, courses in Modern Languages and Music.
All this is because incompetent managers bankrupted the University with the hare-brained purchase of an unusable new campus.
I’m not sure the Management has thought its plan to deal with the situation through. They may save money in the short term, but in the medium to longer term they will not so much tarnish the University’s reputation but destroy it. Does the Management think that recruitment to other courses will remain buoyant after these cuts? Why should any student now study any course at Nottingham University given the risk it might be closed on a Management whim? I fear that a death spiral is now inevitable. And I don’t think Nottingham will be the last UK University we’re going to have to watch going down the drain…
October 9, 2026 at 8:26 am
Thanks, as ever, Peter, for highlighting the situation at Nottingham.
I’m not sure the Management has thought its plan to deal with the situation through.
Indeed. There’s also the question of just how much of that plan was even developed by University of Nottingham employees, let alone members of UoN senior management: https://muircheartblog.wpcomstaging.com/2026/10/07/just-how-much-of-future-nottingham-2-was-written-by-vastly-overpaid-consultants/
October 12, 2026 at 5:00 pm
[…] As we prepare for Wednesday’s one-day strike, I am reminded that academics at Nottingham University are participating in industrial action for the whole term. The “strategy” the “leadership” there is pursuing targets particle physics, theoretical physics and astronomy for job cuts. Why this is the case I have no idea. I don’t think the “leadership” at Nottingham knows either, as the plan was not written by them by a disreputable company called PA Consulting. […]
October 12, 2026 at 5:31 pm
I once complimented a Product Owner, saying it doesn’t seem much, but you actually do own the product working on. In nearly 30 years in Industry finding Managers that actually manage is quite rare too.