Academic-related and professional services staff

Through our national and local initiatives, our committee, and through the academic-related manifesto, we are focusing on the key role that academic-related and professional services staff play both as part of the academic team in higher education and as members of the union.

Join the discussion

Click here to join our email group for academic-related and professional services staff. Discuss the issues that matter most to you, share good practice, and share the issues you are facing in your workplace. This will help to ensure that the voice of ARPS members is heard clearly within the union, so please click here to sign up.

We aim to ensure that:

• the contribution of academic-related and professional services staff to higher education is acknowledged through higher pay, better opportunities for personal and career development, improved working conditions, and an appropriate work-life balance
• higher education institutions properly value and recognise the contribution and expertise of academic-related and professional services staff, particularly in the composition of their governing bodies.

UCU is strengthened by the increased involvement of academic-related professional services members at all levels of the union.

The committee provides regular updates about campaigns and issues that affect ARPS staff on their blog at: arps.web.ucu.org.uk

ARPS committee

The ARPS committee has responsibility to advise and make recommendations to the national executive committee on any issues arising specifically from or related to the employment of members in academic-related roles.

The committee meets three times a year and is also responsible for the organisation of the academic-related staff national annual meeting. The ARPS committee is a special employment interest committee constituted under UCU rule 24.1.

Committee 2025-26

The committee is elected during the academic-related staff annual meeting, which is open to all ARPS staff members.

• Lauren Sandford, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
• Vicky Blake, University of Leeds
• Grant Buttars, University of Edinburgh
• Emily Haikney, University of Leeds
• Jo Taplin-Green, London School of Economics
• Steven Hale, University of Birmingham
• Peter Crowther, Birmingham City University
• Kevin Ward, Middlesex University
• NEC observers - Caroline Proctor, University of Warwick
• Estelle Hart, Swansea University

Keeping in contact

Get in touch with the committee by emailing: academicrelated@ucu.org.uk

Jenny Lennox is secretary to the committee and the UCU national official with responsibility for academic-related members.