Statutes and Ordinances are part of the University's governance structure.  A Statute is a piece of legislation.  An Ordinance is a piece of internal regulation.

The academic restructuring of the University into Colleges created the need to update and modernise the University’s governance structure.  This has happened across all areas of the University's governance, including the area of staff management (known as Statute 8).  The University's new staff statute (Statute 8) was approved by Privy Council in 2009 and, as a result, it has been necessary to develop new Staff Ordinances to support the Statute.  The new Staff Ordinances are contractual policies and procedures.

The new Staff Ordinances have been negotiated with the 3 recognised Trade Unions of the University - UCU, Unite and Unison - at a local and regional level.  Negotiations have been conducted in the spirtit of partnership and co-operation.

The aims of the University and the Trade Unions have been to:

• Develop Ordinances that apply to all staff, including academics;
• Protect some key principles for academics eg Academic Freedom;
• Promote fairness and consistency in the management of all University staff;
• Improve the clarity, efficiency and effectiveness of staff management procedures. 

The new Staff Ordinances are contractual and form part of the terms and conditions of employment for all University employees.  They are:

•  Academic Freedom - Ordinance Document (PDF, 89KB);

• Grievance;

• Discipline;

• Probation;
• Performance Management;
• Redundancy;
• Ill-Health Capability;

• Dismissal for Some Other Substantial Reason (including illegality);

• Removal from Office.

The new Staff Ordinances came into effect on 12 September 2011.  Any previous policies, procedures and customs (written or otherwise) covering the areas listed above ceased as of that date.

You should have received a letter and a booklet from the Vice-Chancellor, summarising what the new Staff Ordinances are all about.  You can also download a pdf version of the booklet using the link at the end of this page.

For anyone unable to access a PC, hard-copies of the new Staff Ordinances are available from HR.  However, please be aware that a full copy of all 9 new Staff Ordinances is approximately 230 pages in length.  So, please consider the environment before you either request a full copy from HR or you print them out locally.

Should you have any questions, concerns or issues regarding the new Staff Ordinances, or just want to find out more, please look at the information in our sections for staff and managers.  Alternatively, you can send an email to our dedicated account, which has been set up to support the introduction of the new Staff Ordinances.

All emails received will be reviewed and either addressed with the individual, or passed to Staffing Policy Committee.  Please only use this email address for enquiries relating to the new Staff Ordinances - you should contact HR in the normal way for any other issues, either by email or telephoning 2439.

Further information for Managers
Further information for Staff
Contact us about the new Staff Ordinances
 Booklet summarising key features of the new Staff Ordinances (PDF, 1.8MB)

The University of Leicester Act
The Charter of Incorporation
The Statutes of the University
The University of Leicester Ordinances