We are the University

VOTE YES FROM 20 OCTOBER

Look out for your ballot paper!

Our demands are straightforward, reasonable and achievable. We are calling for:

• a pay uplift that is at least RPI + 3.5% or £2,500, whichever is the higher, on all pay points
• joint action to protect national agreements relating to terms and conditions of employment
• a national agreement to avoid redundancies, course closures, and cuts to academic disciplines across the sector.

The below inflation offer for 2025/26 of a 1.4% increase from UCEA, the employers' body, translates into another real-terms pay cut and was imposed by almost all university employers from 1 August 2025.

We entered talks this year committed to working together for the sake of the sector, and to protect our members' pay, working conditions, and jobs. Unfortunately, the employers' final offer fails to value university staff and forces you to bear the costs of a failed market sector that employers themselves have championed at every turn. 

This position simply cannot go unchallenged and winning the industrial action ballot is the only way we can do this.

Our sister unions in JNCHES (UNISON, GMB, Unite and EIS) are also balloting their members. This joint response will increase both our bargaining power and workplace solidarity.  

The ballot of members covered by the JNCHES negotiating umbrella, conducted by post as required by law, is opened on Monday 20 October 2025. It will run for approximately six weeks.  

When your ballot paper arrives:
• Vote YES to tell UCEA that you want negotiation, not imposition.• Vote YES to call for the broken market system to change.• Vote YES to call for decent pay, conditions, and job security for all university staff.

WhatsApp channel

As part of our campaign to win the ballot we have set up a WhatsApp channel which will enable us to share updates, videos, graphics and more directly to members.

This will compliment and build on our traditional methods of communication. It also means members are not forced to use social media to get the regular digital content. We ask all members to do two things:

• join the WhatsApp channel yourselves
• ask all of your UCU members colleagues in HE to do the same.

It could not be easier to join. Simply click this link on your phone, follow the channel and you are done.

Ballot timetable

Members working for 137 UK universities/higher education institutions will be included in this ballot (corresponding to 145 UCU HE branches). The ballot will be conducted by the independent election scrutineer Civica Election Services as a postal vote as required by law; please note that there is no online option available for voting for industrial action in the UK. The timeframe is the following:

• Monday 20 October 2025: ballot opens
• Monday 27 October 2025 (09:00): replacement ballot request form opens 
• Thursday 20 November 2025 (17:00): last day for new members to join UCU, or for members to update their membership status or membership category (to become ballot eligible), and still be automatically included in the HE industrial action ballot
• Sunday 23 November 2025 (23:59): replacement ballot request form closes 
• Wednesday 26 November 2025: last 'safe' date to post the ballot
• Friday 28 November 2025 (17:00): ballot closes.

Resources