#BoycottLeicester trends on Twitter, as campaign gains momentum
Written by Emily Herbert
The UCU’s #BoycottLeicester has trended several times on twitter over the last couple of weeks, as the campaign to encourage academics to boycott the University of Leicester in opposition to redundancies gains momentum.
This comes after the Leicester UCU balloted for strike action, which looms ever closer.
The long-running dispute has resulted in the UCU sanctioning the university with the final penalty of a boycott, known as grey-listing.
The Union stated you can help by not applying for any advertised positions at Leicester, not giving speeches or organising academic or other conferences in Leicester and refusing to write for any scholarly publication.
There have been 26 compulsory redundancies and according to Leicester UCU over 100 employees at the University of Leicester have left since January.
Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, tweeted:
“May I suggest @uniofleicester read some of the tweets under #BoycottLeicester if they want to know what real and genuine disappointment looks like.”
Many Professors and Lecturers at the University have expressed their protest, including Professor Steve Brown who stated:
“With much regret I have written to @NCanagarajah notifying of my withdrawal from a funded project. I will have no part of what is happening right now #BoycottLeicester.”
The University of Leicester released the following statement:
“We are disappointed by national UCU calling for an academic boycott of the University within UK and international communities.
“Throughout our change process the University of Leicester has engaged with all our trade Unions to have meaningful dialogue and consultation.
“We are disappointed by the national UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC) motion censuring the University of Leicester and calling for an academic boycott of the institution within the UK and the international academic community.”
Emily Herbert is a first-year student of Journalism at the University of Leicester, with further aspirations of pursuing a career in TV
BA Journalism at University of Leicester
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