Report from HEC, 17 April 2026
UCU’s HEC met for the final time in its current incarnation on 17 April 2026, and you can read the draft minutes here.
Highlights
- For the first time in living memory (for UCU Commoners at least), HEC both got through all business and finished early
- Another record: all six votes taken during the meeting carried unanimously
- Could HEC finally be functional?
Votes on local branch disputes
Three separate votes on local disputes were taken throughout the day: one during Chair’s Business to merge two branches of London South Bank University in advance of balloting; one arising from the Committee Secretary’s Report to delegate powers of censure and boycott of Sheffield University to HE officers should the need arise during their ongoing dispute; and one as a result of the only motion submitted to the meeting, from Northumbria UCU member and Honorary Treasurer Andrew Feeney, to authorise HE officers to set up a censure process of their university pending a branch vote to enact a censure and boycott. All three of these votes passed unanimously.
Committee Secretary’s Report
The Committee Secretary’s Report provided an update on JNCHES negotiations. Dyfrig Jones, Chair of HEC, also brought in JNCHES negotiators to input verbally, including Commoner Ben Pope. Several UCU Left and Rank and File Revolution members expressed disappointment around the lack of late motions to the Higher Education Sector Conference at Congress to deal with the widespread redundancy problem sweeping the HE sector, but were reminded that it had been in their gift to bring late or emergency motions on this to the meeting to vote on sending to sector conference, or indeed to have passed motion via their branches to send to Congress, which they did not do. In any case whatever is decided by sector conference, if anything, will be a matter for the incoming HEC, and not something that the outgoing HEC can try and control. An extra single topic Special Sector conference was even proposed from the floor to take place between the JNCHES meeting on 13 May and Congress – a time when staff are exceptionally busy. The proposer was reminded that this would be something 20 branches would need to call for.
Motions to HESC
Two enabling motions were voted on to recommend both the JNCHES Negotiators’ Report and USS Report to the Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) at Congress. These both passed unanimously.
Secretary of State (SoS) Dispute
We received an update on the SoS dispute, which arose from a motion to the HESC at Congress in 2025. After the March HEC decided to form a working group involving reps from the devolved nations, we had a discussion around transparency, timings, and risks of such a dispute. The working groups will be picked up by the next HEC which meets on 26 June 2026, and a HE member briefing has been scheduled for 20 May at 1pm. Register at the link.
Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) report
We heard from TPS officials Joyce McAndrew and Emma-Jane Phillips on the situation with TPS pensions, which are under attack at various post-92 institutions including Northumbria, Southampton Solent and Sheffield Hallam. After a discussion, HEC voted on the recommendations in their report:
- Continue to support individual branches where changes to pensions schemes are being proposed
- Focus a National campaign on opposing subsidiarization and two tier (or in some cases 3 or 4 tier) workforces, where we can expose the unfairness
- Alongside the ‘Teachers Superannuation Working Group’ set up a working group to explore the implication of changes in the regulations with a view to making recommendations to the Union on a response to any formal proposal.
- Incorporate 'Pension briefings’ and Webinars into UCU calendar of events across Nations as part of a membership campaign to raise awareness of pension provision and the need to defend DB provision.
These recommendations were carried unanimously.
The meeting finished 40 minutes early, having completed all timetabled business.
Summary and looking forward
You may notice that this report is rather short, and rather dry. This is good, because it shows that HEC has become much less fractious and more productive over the last year, in no small part thanks to robust and no-nonsense chairing from Dyfrig Jones. We look forward to him continuing with this approach as President and chair of NEC for the next two years.
We are also delighted that our very own Mark Pendleton will be taking over as chair of HEC after Congress, and welcoming our newly-elected reps: Gillian Jack and Alex Prichard (both UK-elected). Matt Barnard (UK-elected) also rejoins the committee for a period of 2 years. They join Matilda Fitzmaurice (LGBTQ+), Bijan Parsia (Disabled), Vivek Thuppil (Migrant), Caroline Proctor (Midlands), Chris O’Donnell (UCU Scotland President), Sophia Woodman (UK-elected) and Ben Pope (Casualised), all of whom have another year left to run on their terms, plus a host of excellent independent candidates endorsed by UCU Commons.
This was Jo Edge’s last HEC after serving three consecutive two-year terms as Women’s Rep. Jo will continue to serve the union nationally by co-chairing the Anticasualisation Committee with Pat Roche from the FE sector until spring 2027.