NEC Report, 13th March 2026
This meeting was dominated by highly technical discussions of rule changes and we have not written all these up in detail. Only rule changes that attracted some degree of disagreement, or where the committee was in any way divided, have been included in this report.
The NEC meeting began in an orderly manner. Minutes of the previous regular and special meeting were approved with some minor edits to persons attending. NEC was informed that the change to political fund rules approved by the special meeting of the NEC had been implemented to comply with changes to legislation.
Highlights
- NEC approves accounts, subscriptions and budget to Congress
- Lots of rule changes were debated
- UCU Commons called on UCU to campaign against the Home Office’s ban on visas to certain countries
General Secretary’s Report
The General Secretary Dr Jo Grady provided her report. There were several highlights, including campaigning for a new deal for FE, UCU’s actions on highlighting and pushing back against the hostile environment to migrants, and an update on the dire situation regarding redundancies in the prison education sector.
The General Secretary shared details of the union’s activities regarding political lobbying efforts, including in the devolved nations, and of the union’s participation in upcoming demonstrations that reflected our values, such as the 28th March Together Alliance demonstration in London.
The General Secretary also shared details about her attempted visit to Palestine, as part of an Education International (of which UCU is a member) delegation to attend the graduation of a cohort of teachers at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank. She detailed her experience at being stopped by Israeli occupation forces at the border, being separated from the group and interrogated, being accused of lying and wanting to visit teachers in Gaza, before being denied entry and returned to Jordan with the rest of the delegation.
The General Secretary also shared UCU’s campaigning on other international aspects, such as opposition to the war against Iran, and solidarity actions being undertaken with sister unions in Syria and Ukraine. Members can listen to this report in full, as well as all the General Secretary’s reports to NEC, via the UCU website (member login required).
Members of NEC had the opportunity to ask questions and comment following the report.
Andrew Feeney reported on the dire situation in Northumbria regarding the move by the employer to forcefully move staff away from TPS pensions. Sophia Woodman asked what could be done about employers bringing in expensive consultancies to make “efficiencies” in HE and FE institutions.
Pat Roche thanked the GS for her report, and for sharing the work that the union has been doing on so many fronts and stressed the need to work with other unions, such as NEU, on a united front against attacks on jobs and conditions of employment. The General Secretary agreed.
Mark Pendleton provided an update on the situation at Sheffield, where they had been able to provide payments to members on strike on every day of action. Mark also noted that the Higher Education Committee had approved a request by the branch for UCU to formally censure the institution, and that an industrial action reballot was underway.
Vivek Thuppil raised the issue of the UK Government’s stance on barring citizens of some nationalities (including Afghanistan, Sudan, and others) from applying for visas, and how this included students applying for the prestigious Chevening Scholarship. He raised the issue of how people in final stages of interview for the Chevening Scholarship were being impacted by this ban and provided an anecdote of having had the privilege to teach a Chevening Scholar from Afghanistan. He urged UCU to campaign against the Trumpian-style policies being enacted by the UK Government.
Lesley Kane asked about lobbying MPs at their constituency offices instead of Westminster. Matt Perry noted the government hostility to the HE sector, as illustrated by the attack on pensions. Regine Pilling thanked the General Secretary for attending the Capital City College picket line and asked whether there was a date decided for the FE Parliamentary Lobby and whether training would be provided to members on changes to employment rights from the Employment Rights Act of 2025.
Finance
Following recommendations from the Strategy and Finance Committee (which provides recommendations to the NEC), the NEC agreed on the appointment of the auditors, the audited accounts, the budget and a change to subscription rates. These will now be presented to Congress for ratification. We were relieved that this year, there was no repeat of the situation in March 2025, when the UCU Left-dominated SFC had failed to make any recommendations to the NEC.
We were presented with three sets of options for changes to subscription rates (A, B and C, with C being the most progressive). The Honorary Treasurer had agreed he would be comfortable if the committee voted for option A or B, but less so with option C. Feeney proposed an overall subs increase of 1.5% (at the time, CPI was around 3%). He explained that over the past several years, UCU subs have seen an approximately 47% shift from lower-paid members to higher-paid members, meaning that over 60% of the union’s income comes from members on F0 and F1 (the two highest bands). By contrast, members on the lowest bands contribute 15% of the union’s income. This heavy reliance on higher-paid members for income means that significantly increasing rates for these members is risky, as an abrupt hike in subscriptions may lead some of them to leave the union. After some discussion, a large majority of the committee voted for Option B, in line with SFC’s recommendation.
Rule changes
These rule changes had been debated and voted on at the Strategy and Finance Committee in late February, and the next part of the process is their presentation to the NEC. Rule changes need a two-thirds majority to pass at Congress. Some of these are relatively inconsequential for most members, so we have not discussed all of them in detail in this report, especially as many of them carried with little disagreement.
Officer vacancies rule change: 55-1-1
NEC election vacancies: 56-1-1
The Head of Democratic Services explained that the purpose of these votes was to provide clarity. UCU Commons NEC members were broadly in favour of allowing a candidate for NEC to nominate themselves (especially since all candidates are at liberty to vote for themselves), on the basis that barriers to nomination should be lower. The committee voted 37-20-1 for self-signature on nominations, meaning that a candidate’s own signature will continue to count towards the 10, 20 or 50 signatures required to nominate for elected roles. However, an overwhelming majority of NEC members voted in favour of the principle that a candidate cannot use their own signature for the branch nomination route (55 for, 3 against, zero abstentions).
Electronic balloting: 58-0-0 (unanimous)
The next rule change vote was on whether to delete Rule 12 (provision for the removal of branch officers) from the model branch rules. This is distinct from Rule 13 on the misconduct of members, under which disciplinary procedures are run. The Committee Secretary stressed that (mis)use of this rule has inflicted significant legal costs on the union in the past, and that this legal risk would remain if Rule 12 were not deleted. The point of contention here was around whether to keep a risky rule in place, or to have no rule at all until its replacement is agreed. UCU Commons NEC members shared a general view that Rule 12 is vulnerable to politically motivated abuse/misuse, while others on the committee argued that its deletion without an alternative would deprive members of their ability to remove branch officers, should the need arise. We/UCU Commons NEC members found some of these speeches in opposition to removing model rule 12 to be highly revealing. In the end, the vote on deletion of the rule fell, with 24 in favour, 28 against, and 2 abstentions. Unfortunately, this means that this motion will not be put before Congress for consideration, meaning that the union and individual members remain exposed to the risks outlined above.
Happily, a motion to change all of UCU’s LGBT+ terminology to include ‘Q+’ carried with no opposition (56 for, zero against, zero abstentions).
One rule change (Conduct of Members Committee, NEC/1775) was marked as ‘confidential.’
NEC subcommittee motions (from SFC, ROCC, Education and Equality) were all carried (55-1-0)
Due to the packed agenda, the meeting timed out before some items could be discussed and voted on. These items were:
- Rule change: change to CBC standing orders and the addition of a CBC term limit (NEC/1776)
- Rule change: suspension of members (NEC/1778)
- Procedure for possible disciplinary offences (Rule 13) (NEC/1780)
- Motions from members (NEC/1781)