Nottingham lecturers will strike from Monday until December
This is the University of Nottingham in England. University and College Union
members will strike from Monday 5 October to the end of the semester in
December, ten consecutive weeks, after management said an £85 million deficit
requires cutting nearly 10 per cent of its 7,000 full-time posts and suspending
new entry to modern language and music courses. Edinburgh and Dundee staff are already out for five weeks. Nottingham
expects little disruption; note every class cancelled and ask in writing what
will be rescheduled, then read up on academic support.
Three unions walk out together at Glasgow Caledonian today
This is Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. All three campus unions — the
University and College Union, the Educational Institute of Scotland and Unison —
are striking on the same day for the first time, which the unions say could
effectively stop the university operating. Management wants to cut about 50
posts, down from 100 after voluntary redundancies, and will not rule out
compulsory ones, blaming a £33 million fall in income over two years and fewer
international students. Conciliation talks broke down earlier this month.
Buckinghamshire New University cannot sponsor student visas for now
The Home Office suspended the university’s student sponsor licence on 30
September over concerns about its compliance with sponsor duties, and has
removed it from the register of licensed sponsors. It has 20 working days to
respond, and the licence will be revoked if it cannot show it should be
reinstated. Students it already sponsors can carry on studying while the
suspension lasts, provided their immigration permission stays valid; home
students and those on other permissions are unaffected. It hosted 1,530
international students in 2024-25.
MI5 tells academics to stop work funded by a Chinese institute
MI5 said publicly on 30 September that the China General Technology Research
Institute, also translated as the China Academy of General Technology, exists to
fund research that improves Chinese state espionage, and asked researchers to
cease work on its projects immediately. More than 100 academics at UK
institutions have contributed to projects it funded, covering artificial
intelligence, cybersecurity and covert communications, some without knowing who
was paying. The security minister has written to every university. If you are a
postgraduate researcher, ask who funds the project you work on.
Anyone born between September 2007 and August 2008 is eligible for a MenB vaccination
This applies in England. The one-off meningococcal B vaccination programme
announced on 12 June covers everyone born from 1 September 2007 to 31 August
2008 automatically. Students under 25 living in further education accommodation
or halls of residence who are attending one of the named residential colleges
for the first time in 2026-27 should also receive a vaccine, and the Department
for Education added Writtle College to that list on 30 September. The full list
of colleges is on the page, which sits alongside staying healthy in your first term.