The Sheffield branch of the University and College Union has called for six individual days of strike action, beginning from Thursday 7th May and ending on Thursday 14th May.
This announcement comes following years of cuts to University funding, with cuts at Sheffield Hallam University in 2024 resulting in the loss of 150 members of staff.
The UCU maintains that strike action is ‘always a last resort’ but the concern of members about the threat that proposed restructures have to job security within the fields of Chemistry, East Asian Studies, Material Science and Engineering has forced their hand.
The first period of strike action will be from Thursday 7th May – Friday 8th May, with the second from Monday 11th May – Thursday 14 May.
A banner on Sheffield Student Union Concourse: Students Against Austerity – Stop The Lockouts
Kanav Shrestha, a first year student at the University of Sheffield, has labelled upcoming strike action as ‘daunting’. He expanded, ‘Since exam season is just around the corner, to not have that support so close to the date is worrying.’
The Sheffield branch of the UCU had previously announced strike action in October 2025, which began in November and continued until mid-December.
Fellow University of Sheffield student Donovan Livesey says the strike action will impact his studies ‘so much’.
“I’m going to miss so many lectures because of the cuts. It’s just really hard. I know they spent tens of millions of pounds on The Wave, and at the same time we’re seeing all these hard-working university staff being let go”
“It truly breaks my heart.”
On Thursday 12th March a group of roughly 100 students, from both Hallam and University of Sheffield, took part in a demonstration against the cuts outside University of Sheffield’s Student Union.
Kasey Nelson, a first year English student, was key in organising the demonstration.
She said : We cannot sit quietly while our staff, as well as our students, are being treated so poorly, all so they can pocket more change.”
UCU negotiators will meet with University management to seek to resolve the dispute on Friday 1st May. Further updates will be found on Sheffield UCU’s website.
