They’ve had quite a time of it at Hull College of late. There’s barely been time to look forward to being part of the UK’s City of Culture for 2017.
In recent months, there have been high-profile spats with the University and College Union (UCU) and local MP Karl Turner.
Things kicked off with a strike by UCU members in May over pay and the introduction of a new system of lesson observation. Mr Turner waded into the dispute, even addressing the union members during their strike to offer his support.
In response, the college’s chief executive, Gary Warke, wrote to the MP. The letter, which was subsequently posted on Mr Turner’s blog, expressed Mr Warke’s “sincere disappointment that you chose to address striking UCU members without the courtesy of informing me”. The MP’s actions during the strike, Mr Warke added, were “highly inappropriate and disrespectful to the Hull College Group”.
Mr Turner hit back with an even tetchier response, stating that he was “extremely shocked by the threatening and derogatory tone of the letter to an elected Member of Parliament”. “I too,” he continued,” am extremely disappointed that you have chosen to use veiled threats against me. I expect that these are the same bullying tactics that you have clearly used on your staff, who have been forced into this action.” Crikey.
The latest row between the college and the UCU followed news of plans to make a round of redundancies at the college, which the union said could affect up to 142 staff. All this after the college has already lost 385 workers through redundancy since 2011, according to UCU. And plans to close the three nurseries run by the college also proved unpopular.
When the college faced crunch talks with the UCU last week in a last-ditch bid to avoid a strike over proposed redundancies, its management team could have been forgiven for thinking things couldn’t get any worse.
That’s the point at which the visitors from the local area review team turned up to assess the college’s provision. Marvellous.
Thankfully, one potential disaster was at least averted. The strike was postponed by a week following what the union described as “positive talks”.
In a statement, the UCU said it was “optimistic that the dispute could be resolved without the need for industrial action”. With a fair wind, the dispute should have been resolved by the time you read this.
The next challenge for the college is the York, North Yorkshire and the Humber area review, which kicked off last month. Here’s hoping that the next few months prove to be slightly less eventful than the last few.
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