Staff at the University of Nottingham will strike for 61 days from Monday 1 June to Friday 31 July (2026) in addition to the day of strike action set for Friday (22 May 2026), the University and College Union (UCU) announced today (Wednesday 20 May).
The announcement comes as staff began a marking boycott this morning in response to what they describe as ‘brutal cuts management is forcing through.’
The boycott will see staff refuse all assessment duties and block student graduations until management works to resolve the dispute.
The boycott and strikes are over UoN plans to cut more than 700 jobs and shut down over 40 degree programmes including modern languages and music.
Earlier this month 2,697 staff were told they are at risk of redundancy. The cuts would also see research time slashed and result in far fewer staff supporting students, harming student provision and raising workloads say the Union.
UCU says it has has developed a detailed counter proposal that would avoid compulsory redundancies and bring the industrial action to an end, but management has refused all attempts to meaningfully negotiate.
University of Nottingham UCU branch president Lopa Leach said: ‘It is terribly sad we have been forced to begin a marking boycott, threaten students’ graduation and announce sustained strike action. But management’s unwillingness to change its destructive course leaves us with no alternative. We fight for staff jobs, student learning conditions and the very survival of the university as we know it.’
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘Vice-chancellor Jane Norman is taking a wrecking ball to the University of Nottingham. Cuts on the scale she has announced would utterly devastate student provision for years to come, we are urging her to step back from the brink and begin working with us to protect the university’s future.’
