UCU Commons newsletter #16, 6 May 2026
Dear subscriber
Welcome to the UCU Commons newsletter, a curated set of links and information about what's happening in UCU Commons, our union, and our sectors more generally. As always, we welcome any feedback you may have on this or any other matter.
In today's issue:
What UCU Commons have been doing
The last regular NEC of this cycle was held on Friday 1 May. Our report from this meeting will be shared in our newsletter when it’s ready, but we are delighted to report that our work to change NEC standing orders to open up the nomination process to the Equality Standing Committees was approved with an overwhelming majority and will hopefully come into action in time for the next elections in autumn 2026. Furthermore, we passed two important motions with near-unanimity: one on making a £1,000 donation to the Good Law Project’s appeal against the ruling in their case against the EHRC moved by Tilly Fitzmaurice and Jo Edge, and a late emergency motion from Mark Pendleton and Bijan Parsia in response to the horrific antisemitic attacks in Golders Green which both sends solidarity and instructs our General Secretary to ‘investigate what further measures we can do as a union to support Jewish members and to continue, and if necessary broaden, our work to combat antisemitism in our workplaces, colleges and universities and wider communities, and report back to the next full NEC meeting’. It was Jo Edge’s last regular NEC meeting after six years’ continuous service as Women’s Rep (HE), and she will continue to serve the union nationally as co-chair of the Anticasualisation Committee until spring 2027.
Incoming Vice President (HE) Mark Pendleton has been invited to address an online webinar coordinated by UCU and Education International focusing on LGBTA+ solidarity to mark IDAHOBIT (International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia). The following invitation has been sent out to education unions across the world. All are invited to attend on 7 May 2026 from 1pm to 2.30pm (BST) (2pm to 3.30pm CEST). Participants will get an overview of global initiatives as well as concrete examples of trainings, solidarity mechanisms and strategies that can be used nationally and locally to promote progress at home and in solidarity with others. As the webinar centres around the voices and experiences of LGBTI+ communities, we strongly encourage the participation of union representatives who identify as LGBTI+ and/or those interested in coordinating LGBTI+ work within their unions. Mark says: "I'm delighted to be representing UCU at this important webinar on the key role trade unionists have played and continue to play in the international struggle against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia".
Matt Barnard has written a blog post in response to the launch of the free speech complaints mechanism by the Office for Students. Matt says, “I wrote this to articulate my frustration at the erosion of academic freedom, which freedom of speech advocacy does nothing to protect. It is cheap to offer formal freedom of expression, but what truly erodes academic freedom is excessive workloads, spurious metrics and both the threat and carrying out redundancies across the sector. In short, give us funding, not a free speech helpline”.
SAVE THE DATE: UCU Commons will be hosting an informal social event at UCU’s Congress from 7–10pm on Tuesday 26 May. Everyone is welcome. More details to follow, but if you are registered for Congress in-person please do come along and encourage other delegates to as well.
News from UCU
UCU’s anticasualisation committee is working hard to engage members in various ways. Firstly, if you sit on your branch committee, please make sure you request data from your employer and submit it via this online portal. Secondly, the committee is looking to co-opt members from underrepresented backgrounds (for example, ARPS, PGRs and Prison Education, with representation across equality strands and regionals and nations taken into account). The deadline for nominations is 3 June, and expressions of interest should be sent to eqadmin@ucu.org.uk. Finally, the committee is hosting a webinar on open ended ‘subject-to-funding’ contracts on 13 May 12–1pm, with committee member Ian Higham (LSE) speaking about his branch’s work combatting the use of such contracts. Register at the link.
The Further Education joint unions pay claim for 2026–27 has been submitted by UCU and sister unions to the Association of Colleges. Last week, UCU held a UK-wide parliamentary lobby, which focussed on UCU's central demands in the New Deal for FE campaign: pay parity with schoolteachers, workload agreements, and binding national bargaining. And, colleagues at the Windsor Forest Colleges group are on strike today, Wednesday 6 May, across all four of their sites over their measly pay offer: if you are in the area, do pop down to their picket lines to show support!
In our sectors
We are both delighted and relieved that the University of Sussex have won their appeal against an eye-watering £585,000 fine from the Office for Students (OfS) for breaching free speech regulations. The judgement, which is a damning read from start to end, concludes that “the Final Decision was vitiated by bias because the OfS approached the decision with a closed mind and had therefore unlawfully predetermined the decision”. UCU issued a quick and unequivocal response. Smita Jamdar, Head of Education at Shakespeare Martineau law firm, has written a useful summary from a legal perspective; and she is also hosting a webinar this Friday 8 May, 9.30–10.15am, entitled Managing free speech on campus: The University of Sussex v Office for Students, at which we would encourage attendance. Bijan Parsia says, ““Office” implies professionalism and “for Students” suggests that student interests are primary and yet the recent decision illustrates that the OfS – which employs 475 staff on public money – fails profoundly on both fronts but instead is a right wing culture war collection of hacks”.
Sam Freedman's recent piece on the funding and survival of UKHE included a pertinent note that “the debate about universities is mired in nonsense, promoted by politicians who should know better but are happy to play into misconceptions rather than correct them”. Right on cue, Oxford-educated Labour MP Antonia Bance rolled in to pit universities against local industries such as car factories. Lisa Rüll says, “Bance’s BlueSky posts and replies to concerned academics and UKHE employees highlighted her ignorance of the current destruction of the sector. She quickly dismissed the contribution of the thousands of employees working in HE in the West Midlands (facing job losses, closed campuses, and reduced pay security) as "not my industrial focus". How unreassuring for everyone, including local students, who deserve course options in their region, and the graduates and spin-off companies that are supporting local services and the economy”.
We hope you have enjoyed this round up. Want to get involved? Join UCU Commons and work with us towards a more effective union for post-16 education here.
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