Top updates from across the University.
1. Israel and Palestine
A message to everyone in our University community: The Principal emailed all staff and students and encouraged anyone feeling distressed or concerned to seek help, and also outlined the support available from the Chaplaincy. He made clear that our University community benefits hugely from its rich diversity, and this is something that we should celebrate and harness in this very bleak period. Everyone should feel safe and included on our campuses and we will never tolerate any form of discrimination, incitement, bullying or harassment.
We will keep the website updated with information about support and events:
Israel and Palestine | The University of Edinburgh
2. Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC)
As already communicated, good progress has been made throughout the estate on additional structural assessments and remedial work where required and we will shortly re-open the lecture theatres in the James Clerk Maxwell Building. However, lecture theatres 4 and 5 in Appleton Tower will unfortunately remain inaccessible for the remainder of the academic year.
We are working closely with the Timetabling and Estates teams to relocate all teaching scheduled in those venues to alternatives within the University estate.
RAAC at the University of Edinburgh
3. Annual leave policy update and Christmas closure 2024 and 2025
We have now published our Christmas closure dates for 2024 and 2025 and explained some changes to our annual leave policy. There will be an amendment to the 31 March deadline to use annual leave that has been carried over from the previous year. This date will be changed to 31 December however, the policy remains that one week can be carried over.
We’ve also reminded staff of changes to annual leave entitlement for grades 1-5. From 1 January 2024, colleagues in these grades will now receive 36 days of annual leave, an increase from the current entitlement of 32 days for the first 4 years, rising to 36 days on the fifth anniversary of employment.