UCU Edinburgh and Dundee to rally outside Holyrood four days into five-week strike
Staff and students to rally outside Scottish Parliament following further cuts and redundancies
The universities of Edinburgh and Dundee are collaborating to rally outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, 1st October on day four of the proposed five-week strike.
The UCU (University and College Union) announced the rally on Wednesday, citing thousands of jobs at risk from cuts and compulsory redundancies.
The rally will take place outside Holyrood from 12:30pm until 2:00pm.
The UCU confirmed several speakers will be present, including MSPs, the UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, and students.
The statement reads:
“The rally takes place as UCU members at both Dundee and Edinburgh universities are taking strike action for five weeks at the start of the new academic year, staff at Glasgow Caledonian University are taking six days of strike action during September and October, and Heriot Watt University was hit by two-days strike action earlier in the month.”
The strike follows recent cost-cutting measures across Scottish higher education.
The University of Edinburgh recently shared that 90 degree programmes will be axed from the next academic year as part of the £140m cuts announced in 2025.
In a statement on Monday, the UCU said: “1,800 j0bs the union estimates will be cut is unprecedented in Scottish higher education.”
“It is happening in the wealthiest Scottish university, and third richest in the UK, currently sitting with over £3 billion reserves.
“Politicians have called on universities to use their reserves rather than cutting staff and the union called on the new higher education minister to put pressure on the university to similarly protect staff and jobs.”
University of Edinburgh principal, Sir Peter Mathieson, accused the union of “weaponising” students. He said the strike action “will unfairly and deliberately target our students’ first semester of the academic year.”
The “last resort” industrial action at The University of Dundee comes after 675 jobs lost so far from voluntary redundancies following the reported £30m deficit in 2024.
Image: Featured image via edinburghucu Instagram
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UCU Edinburgh and Dundee to rally outside Holyrood four days into five-week strike
Staff and students to rally outside Scottish Parliament following further cuts and redundancies
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