Employment

Russell Group university is on course for UK’s first industrial action linked to 2021 research excellence framework, says union

Academics say ‘personal assistant’ position highlights precarity faced by early career scholars

Winchester apologises after putting address details in ‘to’ or ‘cc’ fields, not ‘bcc’

Staff hit out at ‘financial mismanagement’ as university announces plans to cut roughly a third of modern languages jobs

Member universities would be unable to fill 60,000 jobs from abroad, and face increased costs too, says report

David Green says exposing pay disparities within universities may encourage removing lower-paid staff from direct payroll

Adam Tickell acknowledges university has ‘failed’ staff and students in the past but says improving well-being is his top priority

US study suggests hiring panels may offer worse terms to female scientists seeking jobs at their partner’s institution than to equally qualified solo candidates

Seventy per cent of voting UCU members support walking out, but 41 per cent turnout is too low for action

Foreign faculty’s dissatisfaction adds to the lure of Chinese recruitment push

Welsh university says it is not currently planning compulsory redundancies but cannot rule them out in future

Royal Holloway professor Jeff Frank back at work after lengthy suspension over ‘farcical’ and ‘non-specific’ charges relating to union activity

Survey reveals many staff in UK universities are sceptical about the value of workload models

Unsupportive senior staff and ‘unjust’ promotion practices are major problems reported by black female professors, says equity researcher

Recruiter and ex-Sussex chair Simon Fanshawe aims to tackle biases around gender, ethnicity and university background

University claims policy has not changed but documents tell staff to record their attendance and location daily

Since the 1970s, an increasingly competitive job market has come to advantage the already privileged

First statistics from Hesa on extent of zero-hours contracts show 3 per cent of ‘typical’ workforce have them, but figure is far higher for ‘atypical’ staff

US chemical engineer claims she has been a victim of ‘academic mobbing’, including someone defecating in her bin

Portland State University says Peter Boghossian’s attack on academic explorations of race and gender failed to get ethics approval

Having more women on appointment committees has dramatically cut the number of female academics getting hired, according to analysis

Academics call on employers to provide clarity over support provided amid huge variance in policies within sector, but sky-high costs could deter institutions extending their generosity

Virginia Tech analysis cites end of US retirement mandate in 1994 as key factor to address in easing faculty logjam

Richard Davies accuses registrar of attempting to ‘seize the position of vice-chancellor’

Positions are being redistributed to Italy’s richer regions, academic group warns, exacerbating long-standing inequalities

Data for age profile of academic workforces across the continent show wide variation between countries

Spike in severance payments in Russell Group may be sign of attempt to shed ‘underperforming’ academics

University of Helsinki pilots aimed at eradicating unconscious bias in hiring decisions

Why other academic disciplines have not also introduced such markets is a ‘very good question’, organisers say

Job security a dream for most higher education staff as casualisation escalates

Figures in Elsevier report on AI research landscape are ‘a call to action’

Study based on fields of astronomy, ecology and robotics suggests huge drop in duration of scholarly careers

Legal battle between aboriginal former dean and university could halt institutions’ progress on indigenisation, scholars say

‘Proactive’ female recruitment drive closes staff gender gap, but fails to keep pace with enrolments

Country will also consider creating teaching-focused professorships to stop academics being overloaded by responsibilities

ProfHub plans to let applicants rate universities – and allow anonymous leaks – about the academic selection process

Casual academics stuck in second class, as gold-plated conditions make tenure a distant dream

Pension scheme will re-run its valuation and consult universities on proposals to save defined benefits, although April’s cost increases will go ahead

Frustration with ‘snail’s pace’ progress across continent leads Irish government to back financial sanctions against universities that miss targets

Major Ucea study finds ethnic minority staff suffer ‘significant pay penalties’ relative to white male staff with equivalent academic backgrounds

Living Wage Foundation says that only about one in five higher education institutions has sought accreditation

We can’t deliver equivalent teaching with less preparation time and resources, RMIT academics say

Staff at seven campuses set to walk out after hitting required turnout

Increase in contributions to Teachers’ Pension Scheme will cost post-92 universities about £140 million annually, Ucea says

Younger academics spending far less time on scholarship than in leading nations, analysis suggests

Higher education pension scheme hits back over allegations that it has made a ‘large and demonstrable mistake’ in assessment of its long-term health

Scholars say Indian Institutes of Technology will ‘struggle to recruit talent from abroad’ despite initiative to pool resources

Well-paid professors who led their departments to success in the 2014 research excellence framework won higher salaries and will be even more valued in 2021, say researchers

Poll of almost 4,500 scholars reveals half support the national accreditation system for university hiring and promotions

Virginia King explains how university departments can improve staff inductions to help them hang on to new arrivals

Long-term benefits of research success – and of building industry relations – may be less direct but far more valuable than royalty payments, summit hears

Major new survey of world university leaders finds widespread acceptance that casualisation will increase

Data unclear on whether older scholars are keeping younger researchers out of jobs

Additional contribution from staff combined with 2 per cent extra from employers would be enough to keep current USS pension scheme, say experts

University urged to spend its levy money on training for wider community, not its ‘highest-paid’ staff

Study challenges the idea that it is primarily parenthood that hinders women’s careers – but in Germany, the picture is very different

Union members’ walkout over budget cuts will coincide with the arrival of new students

Universities Superannuation Scheme is in ‘rude health’, says Mervyn King

A failure to treat staff fairly and consistently impedes academic standards and hurts students, says Sheikh Nahid Neazy

Union complains that early career academics have been told they must publish at least one 3* paper every 18 months ahead of 2021 assessment