Sheffield Greens back striking lecturers

Sheffield City Green Party have announced a motion to support striking academic staff at Sheffield Hallam University

Sheffield Green Party notes that “Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) has cut 1000 jobs in a little over two years, and the local University and College Union (UCU) branch reports devastating impacts on teaching provision, student support and staff workload.”

Kim Perry, chair of Sheffield Green Party, said, “We encourage people of the city to support the UCU. Academics of the Universities are vital to both our city and the country’s educational and working future. Staff, students and the public shouldn’t suffer because of the terrible decisions of management.” 

Andy Nichols, spokesperson for the UCU branch, said “Sheffield Hallam UCU branch rejects the policy of managed decline that has been adopted by the University Executive Board, resulting in over 1000 job losses, worsening working conditions for remaining staff, deteriorating learning conditions for students, and adverse impacts on the local economy and communities. We thank the Green Party for their solidarity. in passing this motion.”

The strike, which started on 27th May, is set to continue throughout June. 

Here is the motion in full

SGP: Motion of Support for Sheffield Hallam UCU

We note that:

1. Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) has cut 1000 jobs in a little over 2 years, and the local University and College Union (UCU) branch reports devastating impacts on teaching provision, student support and staff workload.
2. SHU is currently seeking to make a further £27m of cuts, including many more job losses, and taking teaching staff out of the Teachers Pension Scheme by employing them through a wholly owned subsidiary and enrolling them in the Local Government Pensions Scheme instead.
3. SHU has been falling rapidly in the university league tables (from 63rd in 2025 to 84th in 2026, in the Complete University Guide).
4. SHU reportedly creates 2.4 extra jobs in the City of Sheffield for every one job at the University, and is vital to the economy; culture, education and the wellbeing of our city.

 

We believe that:

1. UCU has demonstrated that SHU has a history of poor governance; expenditure outstripping income for over a decade, including tens of millions of pounds of loans taken out for unaffordable buildings, and speculative spending on a satellite campus in Brent Cross, London. If SHU wish to ‘balance the books’, they should look first to their own poor investments.
2. The multiple crises at SHU have been exacerbated by government failures to protect ‘post-92’ (former polytechnic universities) from rising Teachers Pension Scheme costs, in the way that primary and secondary schools have been. This creates a financial penalty for that part of the university sector most likely to educate students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

1. https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/universities/sheffield-hallam-university
2. https://ucuhallam.org/sheffield-hallam-ucu-state-of-the-university-report-2025/
3. https://wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/three-years-on-tps-pensions-are-still-very-expensive-for-higher-education/
4. https://ifs.org.uk/news/english-universities-ranked-their-contributions-social-mobility-and-least-selective-post-1992