Academic labor tensions are escalating: UCU members at Heriot‑Watt, Aberdeen, Stirling and Strathclyde opened strike ballots over proposed job losses and compulsory redundancies, signaling potential disruption to teaching and assessment in Scotland. The union is also polling for action short of strike, including marking and assessment boycotts. Complementing the industrial action, recent Australian research highlighted systemic precarity for early‑career academics, with nearly one‑third advising novices to “find a different job.” The study documents fragmented workloads, fixed‑term contracts and weak mentoring—issues that unions say drive strikes and that institutions must address to retain instructional capacity and research talent.