UCU Commons newsletter #15, 22 April 2026
Dear subscriber
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:
What UCU Commons have been doing
Our report from the HEC held on 6 March is now available to read.
Mark Pendleton, incoming Vice President (HE) has been visiting his home country of Australia over the last few weeks. While there, he met with National Tertiary Education Union National President Alison Barnes, where they filmed a short video together, and later met with New South Wales division secretary Vince Caughley. Mark says, “As employers in the UK and Australia share policies, personnel and overpaid consultants, trade unions too need to be talking across borders and systems so we can better defend workers and public education”.
Chris O’Donnell, President of UCU Scotland, took part in a debate organised by the Edinburgh Union entitled ‘Universities Have Lost their True Purpose’. The debate also featured Edinburgh University Principal, Peter Mathieson, currently overseeing a programme of vicious and wholly unnecessary cuts at his own institution. A video of the whole debate is available, with Chris’s exceptional contribution, ad libbed in response to what he had heard from Mathieson, at 57 minutes in. ‘The infiltration of business tools into our ecosystem is killing our habitat and the flora and fauna of social capital is rapidly becoming extinct’. We could not agree more.
The first meeting of the Anticasualisation Committee took place on 14 April, co-chaired by Ben Pope. Details of the National anti-casualisation survey have since gone to all branch officers for action, and we encourage you to ensure your branch participates. Submissions can be sent in Word format or PDF format or as an online submission, and the template should be updated with your branch details and sent to your institution without delay. The information received back will feed into the work of UCU's anti-casualisation committee and support collective bargaining to reduce insecure work. Given that we are all, to some extent, precariously employed in UK higher education, this should be a top priority for all.
News from UCU
The slash and burn of the UK’s HE sector continues, with the latest victim of the management consultants’ axe being Ulster University. Ulster is set to make up to 450 staff redundant, with apparently £25m savings needed. The story has been covered on BBC News, and the union has issued a statement. In a similarly dire situation are Southampton Solent UCU, who are on strike to defend their pensions for 5 days on 30 April and 5–8 May. They request that members who are able join them arrive at The Spark Building, Southampton Solent University, East Park Terrace, Southampton, SO14 0YN, at 8am. Your attendance would be especially welcome on 30 April when there will be media presence. And, congratulations to the University of Nottingham UCU who, thanks to their embedded local department reps like our very own Lisa Rüll chasing every vote, the branch achieved a massive 64.49% turnout against the latest Future Nottingham cuts. 75.77% said yes to strike action and 86.64% to ASOS, which gives a clear mandate to challenge course cuts and changes to staff-student ratios to save jobs.
We are delighted that free membership, which some of us in UCU Commons have taken advantage of between jobs, is being more widely advertised. If you become unemployed, but are looking for another post within our sectors, you can keep your UCU membership open at no charge by transferring to 'attached unemployed' membership. This membership is free for up to one year, or until you obtain a new post, whichever is sooner.
Registration for UCU’s annual Congress from 27–29 May 2026 in Harrogate closes on Friday 24 April. Congress is UCU’s policy-setting body for the year ahead, and involves full-delegation meetings as well as sector conferences (HE and FE). Each branch gets a quota of delegates based on density; and we firmly encourage all branches to send their full delegate quota. Delegates do not have to be members of their branch’s executive committee to be able to attend, but their attendance must be ratified by a branch or committee decision. Regional and devolved nations committees can also send delegates, as can equality standing committees and employment-specific subcommittees, and members of the NEC attend in an ex-officio capacity. Like last year, Congress is held in a hybrid format, and delegates can ‘job-share’ if necessary. There is no cost to attend in-person: UCU pays for/refunds travel, accommodation and subsistence, and provides childcare at the venue.
In our sectors
Former Vice-Chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University, Rama Thirunamachandran, has spoken to Times Higher Education about the current ‘lose-lose’ funding model of UK higher education. Dave Hitchcock, a member of staff at CCCU, says, “while it is good to see Rama speaking his mind on these issues, what is urgently needed is for current Vice Chancellors in post to make representations to the government on these matters. We all know the system is completely broken, we all need to speak up and particularly those in senior positions in our sector”.
The Guardian has reported on the brutal life of overseas students in the UK, essentially comparing some students' experiences to trafficking. Vivek Thuppil says, “UCU members will be shocked to learn that their employers are potentially complicit in the human trafficking of vulnerable people. Unfortunately, this is the outcome of a situation where university bosses, highly paid consultants, and successive UK governments have changed the landscape of higher education from one of learning and enlightenment to the hellscape of late-stage capitalism that it is today. When chasing bums on seats becomes top priority, that creates space for unscrupulous agents who are willing to take advantage of the dreams and aspirations of desperate people. The UK Government must properly fund higher education as a public good and university bosses must stop running their institutions like shady businesses”.
The Office for Students has announced that new plans to fine universities who fail to adhere to ‘free speech’ will come into action this year. This, of course, does nothing to address the actual suppression of academic freedom on university campuses, which is largely caused by the ongoing funding crisis. Rob Clarke says, “I’d like to use my freedom of speech to call for the destruction of the Office for Students that basically does nothing beneficial for universities, students, education, or society”.
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.
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