NEW: Where is the government in the UK HE jobs crisis?
A third blog post from Matt Barnard, our candidate for the UK-wide casual vacancy
Archive
A collection of 165 issues
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UCU Commons Report from Special HEC - 1st September 2025
By UCU Commons HEC members
Note: the explicit permission of the chair of HEC was sought, and granted, before publishing this report.
Headlines:
* HEC voted by 20-19 in favour of calling a UK-wide statutory industrial action ballot on pay
* In a farcical vote, UCU Left members voted for a ballot
Imposters: a new blog post by Matt Barnard
On the threat of anti-trans ideology to the pursuit of academic enquiry
New: Alienation in Academia and a World Without Experts
A new blog post from our UK-wide NEC seat candidate, Matt Barnard.
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