HE offer 2024/25: member consultative ballot

Our consultative ballot on the higher education (HE) pay and working conditions offer for 2024/25 closed at 5.00pm on Tuesday 3 December and thanks to everyone who participated.

The results of the consultation are as follows:

• Do you accept or reject the pay element of UCEA's final offer?
  Accept: 32%  Reject: 68%
• Do you accept or reject the terms of reference on the pay related elements (contract types, pay spine review, workload, and equality pay gaps) as set out in UCEA's final offer?
  Accept: 86%  Reject 14%
• Are you willing to participate in industrial action in pursuit of an improved offer?
  Yes: 53%  No: 47%

The turnout was 27%.

The union's higher education committee (HEC) will now meet to consider the results and decide on next steps. Please look out for further updates coming soon.

To understand more about the offer please read:

• Final offer from the employers' body UCEA on the 2024/25 pay round
• UCEA final offer 2024/25 pay modelling
• UCU higher education officers' report on the 2024/25 offer
• UCU higher education negotiators' report on the 2024/25 offer
• FAQs on the offer and the consultative ballot

Background

The 2024/25 negotiations started in April 2024 when UCU, alongside the joint campus unions (Unite, UNISON, EIS and GMB), submitted their joint claim to UCEA (the University and College Employers Association). After months of talks, negotiations concluded in September 2024 when UCEA tabled its full and final offer.

UCEA's offer covers both pay and terms of reference for negotiations on a pay spine review, contract types, equality pay gaps and workload.

On 27 September UCU's higher education committee (HEC), at a meeting informed by the outcomes from a meeting of branch delegates, considered the final offer and voted to reject the pay element of the offer and to accept the terms of reference. HEC also voted to launch a formal consultation of members on the offer.