UCU elections 2026

We need more members and the Union needs to better represent those it already has. UCU total membership has grown from 104853 in 2012, to 105698 in 2024 (that’s +1%), while staff numbers have increased by roughly 20% in HE alone. Pay and conditions have worsened during this time, with pay dropping by c.30%, and repeated failures to agree national benchmarks on the other three fights, despite collective bargaining, aggregated ballots and committed strikes. Our success in the fight for our pensions shouldn’t blind us to the scale of our collective failure elsewhere. We need to build density, strengthen branches and make a credible offer to new entrants. As Exeter’s branch president/co-President for three of the past four years, a case worker since 2018, and having co-authored a book on collective organising, and another one forthcoming on constitutional politics, I’m ready for this HEC role. 

In the short term, we should pivot away from strikes over national pay settlements in a contracting sector and towards supporting branches to meet their members and prospective members where they are. We need to build mass participation from the branch up by winning local disputes and giving non or lapsed members a reason to join. A Union of strong branches, with good local density, would pose a more credible collective threat to UCEA or the Secretary of State than just a militant HEC and some small portion of the membership. We should strengthen branches by resourcing casework and representation, and building national support for local campaigns that matter to individual branches. Because non-pay agreements can only be negotiated and implemented locally (local contexts differ), branches need to be empowered to do that, or national agreements are just hot air. Negotiating local joint statements and campaigning over reforms to local pay spines, not to mention pushing back against plans for redundancies, takes strong branches.Turning branch committees into de-facto strike committees for most of the academic year is debilitating and undermines local capacity. National ballots over pay are also undermining local disputes over redundancies. We can’t resort to strike action over every measly pay offer until we have the density, strength and strategy to win. 

I am a member of UCU Commons and you can find out more about our members and candidates here: https://ucucommons.org/election26/. I support the UCU rank and file campaign for a dispute with the Secretary of State over sector funding and Mark Pendleton for VP HE and Suzi Toole for VP FE.

Our sector is in crisis. We face devastating redundancies, institutional bankruptcies, department closures, and the widespread devaluation of our work. The government has failed to act, leaving institutions at the mercy of the marketisation that has brought us here. Senior managers look to replace skilled and dedicated staff with untested automation. Equality, diversity and inclusion are under attack by the right, in the media, and by managers who are unwilling to invest in people. We see managers chase equalities accreditation while failing to make substantive change. Everywhere, overwork is normalised. 

At the Open University, as at many other institutions, we have seen threats of compulsory redundancies, vastly expensive and counter-productive ‘restructuring’ which has cost ARPS jobs, much to the detriment of both students and remaining staff. This is an ongoing and insidious undervaluing of skills and expertise, particularly of staff in professional services and in teaching-only roles. Despite winning open-ended contracts at the OU, teaching-only associate lecturers are still frequently excluded, overlooked, and our skills and expertise undervalued. As a rep and caseworker, I have seen the effect all of this has on wellbeing, and despite management lip service, tangible action is rare. Minoritised staff, especially those with disabilities, bear the brunt. 

The union needs to become more effective at challenging this. The sector crisis meant that we were barely able to celebrate our huge success on pensions before branches had to immediately pivot to the next fight. Many members are tired, disengaged, and disillusioned.

Strikes are an important part of our toolkit, but only one part. For many members, especially those precariously employed or who are worried for their jobs, strike action is a big ask. We must take stock of where we are now and find ways to increase and reenergise our membership. We need a new strategy that is realistic and will inspire participation because it can win. Branches cannot campaign locally and recruit effectively while they are consumed with GTVO, which frustrates some members. I will push for UCU to listen to members, including the less involved, because without the majority engagement, ballots will always be a coin toss; and failed ballots weaken our negotiating position locally and nationally.

I have been involved in my branch as a rep, caseworker and exec member. I have been our Equalities Officer (now a shared role) since 2023, working on improving reasonable adjustments for staff, and trans inclusion, among other issues. I have sat on the Women Members’ Standing Committee since 2022. 

For Vice-President, I endorse Suzi Toole (FE) and Mark Pendleton (HE). I am a member of UCU Commons: for more information about us, please visit: https://ucucommons.org/election26.

Our sector is in crisis. Jobs are threatened and lost, institutions face mergers and closure, and the new Government has been slow to intervene. Our trade union has an important part to play in addressing this crisis and its NEC and HEC are crucial in determining its strategic focus.

The manifold dangers facing our profession come down to funding. With more funding would come fewer job losses, less precarity and less wage suppression, and therewith a better experience for our students. We must continue to pressure the Government into funding reform. Tying tuition fee caps to inflation is an important step, but does nothing to address the devaluation of the fee since 2017. It also leaves untouched the unsustainability of funding universities through student numbers during demographic decline and artificially restricted international recruitment. Real change is needed, and our lobbying of Government must also address the political obstacle in the way of genuine change: anti-intellectualism.

Our profession has been under ideological attack for decades. Expertise is seen as something suspicious, to be judged only in terms of its cash value. Just as Socrates’ critics labelled him as a layabout, pestering his betters and gazing at the stars, academics are seen as out of touch, befuddled pontificators, draining the public purse. This hostile lens distorts the crucial work of all HE professionals, casting us as inefficient, recalcitrant obstacles to progress. It is not enough for us to point out the economic boon any university is to its local economy. We must remind the public and the government that education and qualifications have value in themselves and that the pursuit of knowledge in all subjects, not just those that align with an arbitrary set of managerial priorities, enriches our society. We must resist all attempts to shrink our sector and diminish the diversity of disciplines that is the hallmark of a true university.

In my short tenure since elected to fill a casual vacancy in September 2025, I have attended two meetings in which I have been privileged to engage in discussions and actions towards engagement with MPs and the public, alongside promoting the grassroots organisation and activism that will allow us to defend against the crises of the present and work towards a future in which our work is both funded and valued. I ask now that you elect me again to serve a full term.

For Vice-President, I endorse Suzi Toole (FE) and Mark Pendleton (HE).

 I am a member of UCU Commons. For more information about us, visit: https://ucucommons.org/election26

• Suzi Toole (Bolton College)

• Mark Pendleton (The University of Sheffield)

• Ms Bernie Rutherford (North West Regional College)

• Terry Murphy (Teesside University)

• Rachel Minshull (Luminate Education Group (Leeds City))

• Michael Abberton (University of Cambridge)
• Anastasia Christou (Middlesex University)
• Bianca de Haan (Brunel University)

• Mark Murphy (London South East Colleges)
• Averil Young (West Suffolk College)

• Dr Matthew J. Barnard (Manchester Metropolitan University)
• Dr Gillian Jack (Open University)
• Professor Alex Prichard (University of Exeter)
• Michael Abberton (University of Cambridge) 
• Anastasia Christou (Middlesex University) 
• Bianca de Haan (Brunel University)

• Rav Lall (Harrow, Richmond & Uxbridge Colleges)
• Maria Vasquez-Aguilar (City Literary Institute) 

• Dr Gillian Jack (Open University)
• Poppy Gerrard-Abbott (University of Edinburgh)
• Anastasia Christou (Middlesex University)

• Monica Lawson (New College Swindon)
• Maxine Looby (Oldham College)

• Dr Andrew Oldham (Hopwood Hall College)