Students join the battle as lecturers vote on strike action over job cuts

THE THREAT of a lecturers' strike at one of Yorkshire's biggest universities has divided student opinion, with separate campaigns supporting and opposing industrial action.

The University and College Union (UCU) is balloting members at Leeds University on a strike in a dispute over planned job cuts and the threat of compulsory redundancies.

Leeds University has announced up to 60 jobs could be lost from its Biological Sciences Department, and is carrying out a review aimed at making savings of 35m across the institution.

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Jak Codd, of the Leeds University Union, said it was opposing the strike because the UCU could not guarantee that their action would not harm students' education.

However, Tom Hegarty, a member of the Leeds University Against Cuts group, said: "While of course it is impossible for a strike not to negatively impinge on student's education in the short term, what is the alternative? Passive acquiescence and gigantic classes with no one-on-one time between staff and students?"

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