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UCU

A collection of 28 issues

HEC Discussion Paper: terms and conditions of teaching-focused posts

By Matilda Fitzmaurice 12th February 2026 Introduction There are huge numbers of academic staff employed on fixed-term contracts in the UK HE sector. According to HESA, there were 71,715 fixed-term academic staff and 33,880 hourly-paid academic staff employed in 2023/2024. HESA data also shows a large number

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

Report of Special HEC, 19th February 2025

By UCU Commons HEC members This was convened by a majority of HEC members requesting a meeting to: ‘Discuss matters and make decisions arising from the HEC meeting of 12 December 2024’. UCU Commons members on HEC were not part of this call; in fact, we had a HEC timetabled

Report of Special HEC, 31st January 2025

By UCU Commons HEC members This was convened to discuss the pay claim for 2025–26 (i.e. not last year’s pay claim, which was the reason for calling industrial action in December, so any discussions of that decision were necessarily off the table, as special HECs must be

Annual Meeting of Staff on Casualised Contracts: A Report

By Ben Pope Highly visible consequences of the structural funding crises in UK tertiary education are omnipresent at the moment, and the damage done to individuals and communities by this unfolding disaster will be with us for much longer. On Saturday 22 February, one of the regular, scheduled responses to

UCU Commons HEC report, 27 September 2024

By UCU Commons NEC members Headlines: – HEC to consult members on pay and pay-related offers, with recommendation; – HEC rejects call to research high levels of member disengagement; – A special HEC to be convened to discuss strategy before Christmas. HEC met for the first time after the summer recess on 27

UCU Commons TUC report

Photo: Hussam Zomlot, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, speaking at TUC. Image: TUC This year, UCU Commons member and NEC women’s rep Jo Edge was part of UCU’s delegation to the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and here shares some information and reflections on the three-day event held in

UCU Equality Conference 2024: a guide to registration and nomination

At UCU Commons, we want to broaden participation in all of the union’s democratic structures. This includes the equality conferences and the equality standing committees. The calling notice for this was published a few weeks ago, so we thought we’d write an accessible explainer of how this bit

British Trade Unions Oppose the Cass Report. Here’s Why That Matters.

By Matilda Fitzmaurice On the last Thursday and Friday in June, the TUC LGBT+ conference took place at the magnificent Congress House in London. This 2-day event, which brings together LGBTQIA+ members from the unions affiliated to the TUC, was attended by a large UCU delegation. Many important motions were