'Greylisting' threat hangs over university

from The Islington Tribune, 24/07/09

LECTURERS and staff at crisis torn London Metropolitan University (LMU) are threatening management with the ultimate sanction available to them: “greylisting”.

The move, rarely instigated in this country, amounts to a total academic boycott of the Holloway Road university. Unless university bosses scrap plans to axe a quarter of its workforce in July 2010, they will be shamed as operating a “rogue institution” that lecturers should not work for.The University College Union (UCU) has agreed to “greylist” London Met – which has proposed making 550 full time job cuts – from September 1.Barry Jones, UCU’s regional official for London, said: “Grey listing is an academic boycott of an institution. We will be asking people to not get involved on any basis with the university. This includes conferences, applying for jobs, external examinations – anything really.”He added: “It will be hugely embarrassing for the university if we go ahead in September. We are doing this to put pressure on management to stop the redundancies.”

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