New: Alienation in Academia and a World Without Experts
A new blog post from our UK-wide NEC seat candidate, Matt Barnard.
Archive
A collection of 152 issues
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Help your UCU Higher Education reps decide what we should do next for our pay dispute
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Vote in UCU NEC's Casual Vacancy Elections!
Dear subscribers,
As you may have already heard, voting opens today for two casual vacancy elections on UCU’s NEC. One is for a UK-elected seat, and the other is for a North East regionally elected seat, and these were created when Ann Gow and Andrew Feeney were elected as
Higher Education Committee Report: 4 July 2025
Headlines:
* HEC approved a consultation of members on an industrial action ballot on pay and conditions starting soon
* HEC approved coordination with other unions in JNCHES negotiations with UCEA on a shared timetable for industrial action next academic year
Overview
This meeting was the first for this year’s cohort
Congress and NEC sub-committee election results, 25-26
We are delighted that several UCU Commons members have been elected as chairs and members of NEC subcommittees for 2025–26 (as voted by the new formation of NEC) and to Congress-elected roles. These are:
NEC subcommittees
Recruitment, Organising and Campaigns Committee (ROCC)
Chair: Mark Pendleton
Member: Matilda Fitzmaurice
Equality
NEC Report from Friday 20th June
By UCU Commons NEC members
Headlines:
* NEC agrees changes to membership of Equality Standing Committees to include non-employed postgraduate members
* Calendar of meetings and allocation of unheard Congress motions agreed for 2025–26
* Motions passed in support of the arts, anti-racism, anti-ableism and researching the links between casualisation and equality
HEC Report from Friday 4th April 2025
By UCU Commons NEC members
Headlines:
* JNCHES: moves towards joint lobbying of the government over the sector’s financial crisis
* Motion condemning the OfS investigation of the University of Sussex passed
Greylisting of Brunel University
There was a proposal for UCU to apply the sanction of ‘greylisting’ (also known as
Take action now against the Supreme Court ruling and for trans rights
By UCU Commons
A core value of UCU Commons is equality and dignity for everyone; but particularly for transgender and nonbinary people whose rights and wellbeing have faced increasing attacks over the last few years. This has culminated in a supreme court case, brought by For Women Scotland and backed
Protect Education Now: national rally on Saturday 10 May
Register today!
Report from NEC, 14th March 2025
By UCU Commons NEC members
Key takeaways:
* President remains steadfast on dealing with bad behaviour
* NEC approves subs and budget to Congress
* Usual bad faith questioning and undermining of the General Secretary
A calendared meeting of the National Executive Committee, which deals with cross-sectoral business and is composed of some