Warwick Uni staff threaten to strike if teaching isn’t moved entirely online

A vote was held on Friday where ‘members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion’ of industrial action


University of Warwick UCU has recently announced that there is likely to be industrial action if The University of Warwick refuses to make teaching entirely online.

With the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country, there has been a divide across universities in the UK as to whether teaching should remain in-person or online.

Northumbria, Newcastle, and Manchester University are just three of the latest universities to move all of their courses fully online following outbreaks.

At the beginning of September, Warwick proposed to bring students a blend of online learning with in-person teaching. Now, staff are calling to put an end to it.

An official Warwick UCU representative said: “On Friday, we held an Emergency All Member Meeting – the biggest meeting our branch has ever had, with 211 members present-to debate a motion to mandate the Branch Committee to conduct a ballot on industrial action, should the employer continue to fail to address our concerns about the current approach to work on campus during the pandemic.

“The vote was conducted over the weekend, and members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the motion. If the university refuses to immediately make online teaching the default option for all teaching, except in limited circumstances of practice-based modules, and to apply this to all staff including casualised staff, then the Committee now has a mandate to ballot members of our branch for industrial action.”