Lecturers at a string of the UK's leading institutions have called for a vote of no confidence in the Universities and College Union (UCU) boss Jo Grady over the 'ineffective' strikes she led.
Lecturers from Durham, Glasgow, Keele and Leeds Beckett universities have backed motions for 39-year-old Miss Grady - who became UCU leader in 2019 - to resign.
Last month the UCU branch at Durham University also called for the union to cover the wages of academics whose pay had been cut off.
In a vote at York St John University, lecturers branded the UCU leadership 'confusing, ineffective and undemocratic' 'through industrial action in 2023'.
The UCU has led three years of hugely disruptive walkouts for students. Many students were forced to graduate without knowing their results after lecturers refused to mark this summer's exam papers and dissertations in a dispute over pay.
Students received blank certificates at their graduations and some even held placards demanding a refund on their tuition fees.
The highly controversial walkout was called off by the UCU last month, despite no pay offer being made. The UCU is set to re-ballot members to drum up backing for more strikes later this year.
The calls for Miss Grady, an employment relations lecturer at Sheffield University, to resign have sparked a huge row, with her allies telling the Sunday Times that she is being scapegoated for the failure to secure a pay deal.
