From Professor Richard Reece | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience 

Yesterday evening the University and College Union (UCU) informed us that the Kent UCU branch will be taking three consecutive days of strike action from Wednesday 1 December to Friday 3 December due to the ongoing disputes over national changes to Pensions and over Pay and Conditions. This follows their mandate secured in the recent ballots. 

I know this may be concerning news for many of you and want to reassure you that we are actively working to put plans in place to minimise any disruption to your studies or research as far as we can. 

What this means for you 

On Wednesday 1 December, Thursday 2 December and Friday 3 December, it is likely that UCU members at Kent will not be working, which means that teaching or research activities on those days will probably be disrupted. There could also be disruption to some of the other services you use across the University. 

How to find out if this affects you 

While we know the days when strike action is due to take place, we won’t know in advance which members of staff will be taking part. This means that we won’t always be able to let you know ahead of any classes being cancelled – please check Moodle, any online course groups and your emails regularly in the run-up to the strike days for updates which we will share wherever possible. 

How we will support you 

We are here to support you throughout this period and we know how important it is that your studies continue as smoothly as possible. We will shortly share student webpages with information on what we will have in place to support you throughout any strike activity, along with the opportunities you will have to ask questions about this and who to contact with any queries. 

We are also continuing to seek open and constructive dialogue with the Kent UCU branch to make sure we do all we can to avoid this planned action from taking place. I will keep you posted of any further developments throughout. 

With all good wishes, 

Richard 

Professor Richard Reece | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience