Lecturers’ union has new leader


Members of the UCU university and college lecturers’ union have a new leader after electing Jo Grady in a record turnout. 


The ballot followed the resignation in February of Sally Hunt who had been general secretary since the union’s inception in 2007. 


Grady, a senior lecturer in employment relations at the University of Sheffield, won the three-cornered fight, securing 64% of the vote after the second round of counting. 


The other candidates were the UCU’s national head of policy and campaigns, Matt Waddup, and the president of the University of Liverpool UCU branch, Jo McNeill. 


Turnout was 20.5%, compared with a previous high of 14.4% in 2007 and 13.7% at the 2017 election.


Grady, whose start date is yet to be confirmed, said the new leadership of the union comes “at a time of extraordinary challenges for all staff who work in tertiary education, from the pressures of volatile funding regimes to the indignities of Brexit and the Hostile Environment”.


https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10114/Jo-Grady-elected-UCU-general-secretary

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10052/Dr-Jo-Grady-University-of-Sheffield