UCU Commons newsletter #18, 26 May 2026

Welcome to the UCU Commons newsletter, a curated set of links and information about what's happening in UCU Commons, our union, and our sectors more generally. As always, we welcome any feedback you may have on this or any other matter.

 In today's issue:

A message from Mark Pendleton, incoming Vice President (HE)

Congress can be an intense few days, but it plays an essential function in our union’s democratic structures in setting the policy agenda for the year ahead. Your role as a delegate is vital in ensuring that the decisions we take this week are reflective of members. Exercising your vote on behalf of the members you represent is therefore an important responsibility. You are here not just to represent your personal views but your branch, region, nation or other group of members who have selected you to represent them.

This bulletin gives you a sense of some of the debates we in UCU Commons see as important over the next few days. We’ve offered some suggestions about how we’re going to approach these debates, but as a group we are not a monolith. Commons members organise together because we share some key values and a broad orientation about how we think the union should operate, but we also disagree, as members do across the union more widely. However we know that we are stronger together, and we hope that over the next few days and as we enter a new annual cycle in UCU’s calendar, we can all learn to disagree better and focus on what unites us.

From the end of this Congress and for the next three years, I’ll be chairing UCU’s Higher Education Committee (HEC). In that role, I’ll be leading our sectoral negotiations over pay (New JNCHES) and the USS pension. I’ll also be working with staff at Carlow Street, with branches and with activists and members like you, to advance lobbying work, develop public and media campaigns and build more effective networks of allies to not just defend higher education but demand a better future. And I’ll be joining you on picket lines when necessary. Ultimately we are in the fight of our lives for the future of post-16 education and that requires all of us pulling in the same direction.

I’ve got lots of ideas of what needs to be done to improve our union’s work across the areas of my new responsibilities. I’ll therefore be presenting a strategic programme for the coming years at the next HEC in June. But by no means do I have all the answers.

So if you see me around Congress, please introduce yourself. I want to know what issues are affecting members that you know and what you think we need to do as we push ahead in this fight.

If you're not going to Congress this year, your delegates still represent you! Please pass this email on to them and encourage them to vote in ways that are representative of your branch and its members.

Enjoy your Congress 2026 and I look forward to conversations with you all over the next few days, and the months and years to come, as we build a more democratic, stronger and more effective union together. 

What to expect at Congress

Congress is UCU’s policy making body, which sets out what UCU should be doing over the year ahead. It is up to UCU’s decision making bodies, NEC and its sectoral subcommittees (HEC and FEC) to interpret and enact this policy in their regular meetings throughout the year.

Days 1 and 3 of Congress are sector-wide: meeting to vote on motions affecting all our sectors and is chaired by UCU’s President (this year, Maria Chondrogianni). On Day 2 the sector conferences for HE and FE take place separately to discuss and vote on motions relating to specific sectoral issues. The chairs of HEC and FEC chair the sector conferences (this year, Dyfrig Jones and Suzi Toole respectively).

Various fringe meetings take place during lunch breaks; and social events are arranged for the evenings. The ‘Introduction to Congress’ meeting takes place from 6–7pm on Tuesday 26 May (in the Main Congress Hall) before the in-person welcome reception for all delegates on Tuesday evening from 7–8pm (in Hall D); we strongly advise first-time attendees to attend both of these if they are able. All the relevant documents and information can be downloaded from the Congress 2026 webpage.

Some tools to help at Congress

Commons member Bijan Parsia has put together some handy tools to help you better work through Congress business. As Bijan says, “The CBC report is a very static PDF with no navigation features. I'm not a big fan of motions split across page breaks. In general, I prefer to read online and take notes online and the PDF ain't great for that”. The highlight is an interactive wiki, but also provided are a GoogleDoc and Markdown file for those who prefer that. Bijan has also written a blog post explaining what he’s done and how to use these tools.

UCU Commons social event

On Tuesday 26th May, 7–10pm, UCU Commons is hosting an informal social event upstairs at North Bar, 2d Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate, HG1 1DA. The first few arrivals will be able to enjoy a drink (alcoholic or otherwise) on us, and there will be pizza available (also on us). All are very welcome to come along (whether a Congress delegate or not), and do drop us an email if you have any access or dietary needs that would be useful for us to know about in advance.

Key debates and voting recommendations

The vast majority of Congress motions do important work in highlighting key issues for our union to address and we often find ourselves voting (along with most other delegates) for most motions. However, we have identified a few motions and amendments in the Second Report of the Congress Business Committee that have been submitted to both Congress and Sector Conferences which are worth drawing your attention to and providing further context as delegates consider their votes.

Business of the Equality Committee

Motion 7, Resisting Earned Settlement proposals. University College London.
This motion is nominally about resisting increasing attacks on migrant rights, which of course we welcome as an important part of our work as trade unionists. We are however deeply concerned at resolve d), which instructs the union to affiliate to one known ‘gender critical’ organisation, FiLiA, and another organisation, Project Resist, which does not state its view on trans rights, but is linked with many named members of FiLiA. Therefore, this motion should only be passed if the amendment 7A.1, in the name of the Women and LGBT+ Members’ Standing Committees, to remove resolve d), is also passed.

Vivek Thuppil, Representative for Migrant Members in HE, says,

“There are innumerable organisations that have raised their voice against the UK government’s xenophobic immigration proposals. These include Reunite Families UK, which have organised parliamentary briefings bringing together a range of trade unions, civil society groups, and legal firms.

It is strange then that the authors of this motion explicitly names a ‘gender critical’ group that has done nothing substantive on the issue. As a migrant, I am not prepared to express solidarity with an organisation that dehumanises our trans siblings. If you come for one of us, you come for all of us. I support the amendment from the LGBTQ+ and Women Members’ Standing Committees that is aimed at striking out the ‘gender critical’ groups from the motions”.

Motion 14, In defence of trans workers. Women Members’ Standing Committee.
This contains robust, concrete actions that our union should take in the wake of April 2025’s Supreme Court ruling. Please vote for this motion.

Business of the Recruitment, Organising and Campaigns Committee (ROCC)

Motion 78, Exit X. University of Southampton. 
We endorse this motion to make it UCU policy not to post on X in any capacity. Please vote for this motion as amended by the Women Members’ Standing Committee to ensure UCU accounts are not taken over by bad faith actors or bots. Incoming NEC member Alex Prichard from the University of Exeter said in support, “Studies suggest that the X algorithm pulls participants to the right, and that is just one reason for UCU to get off Musk's hellsite. HE workers anxious about jobs and the sector also don't need to be pulled into doom spirals as a consequence of having to seek out posts and engagement with UCU content”. 

Business of the Strategy and Finance Committee

Motion 52, Academic freedom and freedom of speech require industrial strength. London regional committee. 
This is an important motion brought by the London regional committee in response to some awful and violent activities by far right Zionist groups on London campuses. However, in its unamended form the motion includes language that we are not comfortable with. 

We spoke with the UCU Jewish members caucus, an informal grouping of Jews and allies, who have raised similar concerns:

“We, the UCU Jewish caucus, note that union rule 2.5 states that the union will actively oppose all forms of harassment, prejudice, and unfair discrimination. Motion 52 depicts Zionism as partly or entirely dangerous and repressive. We note that two thirds of British Jews identify as Zionist according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. That includes a significant number who are wholly supportive of Palestinian rights and sovereignty. To describe a majority of Jews as dangerous is antisemitic, therefore racist, and this stands in contravention of a crucial UCU Principle”.  

We think the amendments from the NEC improve the motion and would do the important work of enabling the union to resource branches to respond to repressive actions against staff and students. We encourage delegates to only vote in support of the motion if the amendment passes. 

Higher Education Sector Conference 

HE13 Composite: USS Conditional Indexation. University of Oxford, University College London, London regional committee, Southern regional HE committee, Royal Holloway University of London 
This motion will likely be debated alongside a comprehensive report written by the Superannuation Working Group (SWG), an elected body of the union made up of the Pensions Official, Chair of HEC, the three USS negotiators and two alternates elected at Congress every year, and the three members of the USS advisory committee elected by the NEC every year. The SWG does extensive work on securing and improving our USS pensions, which includes several recommendations. This is on the agenda as HE12. This report recommends continued skeptical engagement with work on conditional indexation, one aspect of our wider work to ensure that members’ interests are protected and advanced in retirement. 

We strongly recommend supporting the SWG report (HE12) in full and rejecting HE13. 

Bijan Parsia, who has sat on the SWG for two years, explains:

“This motion seeks to end the ‘skeptical view of Conditional Indexation (CI)’ and move to a ‘hostile view’, which is a minority view of the SWG as a whole. The motion is technically inaccurate in several ways stemming from the mistaken view that CI is simply one thing (and what employers want), rather than a family of options including, as described by Mike Otsuka, one that would guarantee we would be no worse off no matter what. It is hard to know if employers would go for that option, but Otsuka’s analysis at least demonstrates that CI, as a group of options, isn’t necessarily negative. Furthermore, CI will not be implemented soon even if we all agreed to it today. There are enormous technical, governance, and regulatory issues that need to be sorted. Work to fully understand the kinds of models that would work for USS will take several years alone.

Given that employers are moderately keen on exploring, what benefit does it give us to go nuclear at this point? The odds are high that it will be unworkable (for regulatory reasons) and we are still in an excellent position to advocate for CI schemes that benefit members”.

The UCU website has a range of materials on Conditional Indexation if you require more information.

Congress elections: voting recommendations

Congress is also a chance to elect a number of important roles. It is vital that all delegates vote in every category they are able to. Below are our recommendations on who to vote for in each election.

Congress Business Committee

Congress Business Committee is the body that helps to organise the agenda for our annual Congress and sector conferences. Two people from each sector are elected each year for a two-year term. 

HE:

1. Matthew Barnard
2. David Hayes

FE:

1. Richard Coyle
2. Pat Roche

HE Pay Negotiators

JNCHES Negotiators are the team elected to negotiate with HE employers through the annual pay negotiations, alongside negotiators from the other unions that are part of this joint negotiating structure:

1. Ben Pope
2. Adam Hansen
3. Robyn Orfitelli
4. Lucy Burke
5. Peter Wood
6. Richard Parkman

FE Negotiators

FE Negotiators are the team who negotiate on behalf of FE members over pay and conditions in England:

1. Averil Young 
2. Rav Lall
3. Kate Ferguson

USS Negotiators

USS Negotiators are the the team elected to negotiate over USS pensions in HE:

1. Jackie Grant
2. Bijan Parsia
3. Vicky Blake
4. Alex Prichard

Conduct of Members Committee

The Conduct of Members Committee is the pool of thirty members, ten of whom are elected each year for a three-year term, who adjudicate complaints brought by members. This year, there are just nine to elect (at least four must be from the FE sector) since our very own Jo Edge was elected unopposed as the only casualised member to nominate:

1. Lisa Rüll 
2. ⁠Umran Ali
3. ⁠Pauline Rattery
4. Matthew Barnard
5. Rachel Minshull
6. Brian Hamilton
7. Janet Farrar

We hope you have enjoyed this round up. Want to get involved? Join UCU Commons and work with us towards a more effective union for post-16 education here. 

We are big fans of the Wayback Machine.