Presidential address to UCU Scotland Congress

UCU Commons members Chris O’Donnell chaired UCU Scotland’s annual Congress on 27 March, where he also gave the presidential address, the text of which is reproduced below.

 Comrades, colleagues, friends,

Thank you for being here today and thank you for everything you have done over the last year. We meet at a moment of real crisis in our universities — a crisis not of ideas, or of staff’s passion for our ecosystem, or your maintenance of the magnificent work you do in it, but of funding, governance and respect for the staff and students who make higher education possible. Yet this is also a moment of real possibility for UCU.  What we do now will determine whether higher education in Scotland becomes a faded monument or a living movement that serves our communities, our students and future generations.

Congress gives us a moment to stop and think about why we organise: to act, to change, to refuse to accept decline as inevitable. We are here to rebuild higher education as a public good — properly funded, open to all, and governed with transparency, fairness and accountability. When I think of a focal point to see what drives our work, it’s one where our work makes society safe, educated and just.  A society in which education is not commodified, where staff are respected and secure, and where students are welcomed, supported and able to thrive.

Over the past year, UCU Scotland has acted on that belief. Our “HE in Crisis: Save HE” campaign has mobilised members across the country — from rallies in May and October, to branch-led parliamentary actions in Edinburgh and Dundee. We have supported branches in negotiation and dispute, challenged cuts, and fought to make the crisis in our sector unavoidable for politicians and the public. We have brought our message to the Scottish Parliament and to the heart of policy debates ahead of the elections: public funding, fair governance, ending precarious contracts, and protecting free tuition.

This was not easy work. It required courage and solidarity. Eleven local ballots were run; ten were won. Members in Dundee, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Strathclyde and beyond took strike action because employers left us no other way to defend jobs and terms and conditions. At Dundee, our branches took 26 strike days, and at Edinburgh, nine strike days — victories and concessions were won because you stood together and used your collective voice. These actions were not about disruption for its own sake; they were about defending livelihoods, academic integrity, and the principle that students deserve a stable, professionally supported education.

We have also used every tool available to us: collective bargaining, expert financial scrutiny, legal advice, and due process in redundancy consultations. Our submission to the Gillies Inquiry and our engagement with the Scottish Government at ministerial and committee level and the Universities Scotland–Scottish Government Framework process show that we are not merely reactive: we are proposing a positive, credible alternative for the future of higher education. We have produced a manifesto and a vision paper for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections because politics matters — and we will hold those elected to account.

But our campaign is not only about industrial pressure and parliamentary lobbying. Organising and education are central. Over 58 reps were trained last year; branch health checks and away days helped rebuild local capacity; we supported green networks and continued to embed equality and inclusion in everything we do. Our approach recognises that cuts and redundancies do not affect everyone equally — women, disabled colleagues, BME staff, early-career researchers and those on insecure contracts disproportionately bear the cost. We will continue to centre equality impact assessments and demand justice for the most vulnerable in our workforce.

We have had real policy wins because of collective pressure: where employers initially refused even a 1.4% uplift, branches like Aberdeen mobilised and forced implementation. Where governments considered changes to governance and funding, our lobbying secured important protections — including fair work extensions to universities from April 2027. These are small victories in a long fight, but they demonstrate the power of organised persistence.

Our movement is also student-facing. We have worked closely with NUS and students’ associations, recognising that staff and students share interests in preserving the public mission of universities. We stood shoulder to shoulder with student campaigns and invited NUS Scotland’s president to address our congress because solidarity multiplies our strength.

Looking ahead, the work does not stop. The Tertiary Education and Training bill, the ongoing review of higher education sustainability, and the coming elections make this year decisive. We must push harder for public investment, oppose any move toward tuition fees, and insist on governance reform that brings accountability and worker representation. We will continue to fight for secure contracts and to expose the hidden redundancies that erode our sector — the fixed-term roles not renewed, hours reduced, and precarity normalised.

Here is where I think we have to reflect on our position and how others see us.  We are at these tables not to make up numbers, not to be seen as part of the process, but to inform, challenge, and improve our members’ working environment and students’ learning systems.  In many of my meetings with politicians and university executives, our own differences have been the source of ridicule.   What do they wish to achieve with those behaviours? To shame? To unsettle? To my mind, passing us off as not a force, not a movement, but as a thing to be belittled and marginalised.   So a part of today, take away a question, is my action one that will have our collective movement taken seriously at the time of crisis? Is our creativity and skill being respected, feared, or seen as a necessary part of the solution? We can disagree, debate, but it has to be in a way that cannot be used against ourselves. 

To every branch, every rep, every member who has marched, phoned, leafleted, trained, advised, or simply supported a colleague: thank you. But thanks are not enough. Not when I ask you now to step up again. Attend our branch meetings, enable votes in ballots, and engage with students and our wider communities. Bring your stories to MSPs, to the media, and to every place where decisions are being made.

Remember Mick Maghey’s words: we are a movement, not a monument. Movements are living things — they require care, mobilisation, unity, courage and clarity of purpose. They take risks, hold each other up when we are threatened, to account when we are less than our best and insist on change. Movements win when they persist and when they refuse to accept the framing that damage to our ecosystem is inevitable.

And when we ask, as Jimmy Reid asked, “What do we mean by a ‘good society’?” let us answer with our values and our work. A good society invests in education as a public service. It values those who teach, research, and support students. It protects the most vulnerable and opens doors rather than erecting paywalls. It governs institutions transparently, with democratic participation and with fairness at its core.

Today I urge every one of you to continue this fight with passion and purpose. We will continue to demand funding, defend jobs, and shape a higher education system that serves the common good. We will keep training, organising and building branches that are resilient and inclusive. We will keep taking our case to the lecture theatres, classrooms, Parliament, and the public.

In solidarity, let us make the next year the year our movement turns crisis into renewal. Let us be bold, let us be united, and let us refuse to let our universities become monuments to neglect. Together we can build the good society we all want to see.

Have a meaningful and enjoyable conference.