Motions put to the 2022 meeting [74kb]
Love our ARPS
Love our academic-related, professional services staff – more than just a lecturers’ union
The academic-related, professional services (ARPS) staff committee organised a month of activities to boost ARPS membership and ARPS-focused activities in branches.
Branches continue to be encouraged to elect an ARPS rep onto the branch committee, and hold meetings of ARPS members to discuss their concerns, and consider actions that would address them.
Catch up with our month of ARPS-focused activities including a webinar looking at the outcomes of research conducted by Professors Richard Watermeyer and Tom Crick into ‘professional services staff during the Covid-19 pandemic’.
ARPS Annual Meeting 2021
The 2021 annual meeting for ARPS was held on 18 March 2021.
2021 Conference Papers:
There were two presentations by Dr Alicja Syska & Ursula Canton, and Professor Colin McCaig, on ‘finding the silver linings in the cloud’:
Silver lining in the cloud – learning development: Syska & Canton ARPS annual meeting 2021 [56kb]
Silver lining in the cloud: McCaig ARPS annual meeting 2021 [356kb]
The annual meeting voted to adopt these motions including agreeing amendments to the ARPS standing orders:
Keeping universities running during the pandemic – the importance of ARPS staff
ARPS Annual Meeting 2019
The 2019 annual meeting was quorate for the first time in two years, so the main focus for the day was on electing an Academic-related, professional services staff committee, and looking to formulate a work plan for the committee for the year ahead.
Motions adopted at the ARPS annual meeting 2019 [45kb]
A presentation of the results of the last survey undertaken of ARPS staff in 2017 [446kb] was made to the meeting.
Lively workshop discussions produced some good feedback from the groups.
We are all UCU: building branch ARPS groups
Reply
ARPS members of UCU make up around 10% of the membership, yet unlike academic colleagues, they are often dispersed widely across each University and membership density varies across ARPS departments and functions. It can be hard to find allies under these circumstances and to make ARPS voices heard in branches. If you’ve ever shouted ‘it’s not just a lecturer’s union’ at the tv or radio then read on, because there is a way of trying to counter this, raise the profile of ARPS members and carve a place for them in your branches.
The University of Sheffield’s ARPS group was born out of picket line conversations during the 2018 strikes which discussed these very issues. Isolation, confusion over ASOS and the difficulties of striking dominated the inaugural meeting, which attracted around 40 members from a wide range of ARPS roles. These included Heads of Service, Learning Developers and Library staff, amongst a wide range of others. The meetings provided a space to talk through issues, to discuss approaches to industrial action and to better understand the range of experiences across the University. Continue reading