Congress 2025: Higher Education Sector Conference

Sector conferences scheduled for Thursday 30 May did not take place.

Motions have been allocated to a section of the NEC's report to Congress (UCU2119). Paragraph headings refer to paragraphs within this report. CBC may have added some new paragraph headings to facilitate the ordering of motions.

Section 3: Business of the higher education committee (HEC)

Motions HE1-HE5 to be taken in private session 

Sections 2 and 3, Pay and New JNCHES, and Redundancies and the fight for HE

HE1  Negotiators' report - Higher education committee

HE sector conference notes the report and approves the recommendations of the national negotiators contained  UCUBANHE/91 [243kb].

CARRIED

HE2  Rebuilding the fight over pay and jobs - Composite: London HE regional committee, University of Brighton

Conference notes

1. the failure to implement motion HE9 passed at SHESC May 2024 calling for UK-wide industrial action in 2024-25
2. members' 2:1 rejection of the pay award and majority in favour of an IA ballot in the consultative ballot last autumn.

Conference believes:

1. UCU's failure to take UK-wide action has given a green light to employers to undertake the biggest ever attack on jobs in the sector
2. UK-wide strike action is a crucial component of a serious campaign to reform the funding model
3. an even worse pay offer is likely for 2025-26 than recent years.

Conference resolves to

1. plan to run the next HE pay campaign linked to a political campaign for a fully-funded sector calling for emergency measures to save jobs, courses and the sector.
2. declare an industrial dispute as soon as JNCHES dispute resolution mechanisms are exhausted
3. run the IA ballot, HEC meetings etc., on a timeline permitting members to take UK-wide term-time strike action in Term 1, and if not practically possible, Term 2
4. to facilitate tours of speakers from striking branches to branch meetings and provide industrial action briefings
5. send out detailed briefing notes and organise regional GTVO workshops
6. call a conference to defend HE promoting and debating UCU's proposals
7. consult members on types of action through regional/devolved nations meetings and a branch delegate meeting. 

   CARRIED AS AMENDED

HE2A.1 Compositing amendment - University of Brighton

Delete resolves point iii, replace with

3. call a BDM and Special HEC before the summer vacation and initiate a campaign to win an IA ballot, and timetable a 5/6-week ballot window to allow action to start in November.

CARRIED

HE3  Pay and security - Newcastle University

Conference notes:

1. roughly 1000 university staff jobs are being lost each month
2. the funding of HE is broken and requires profound reform
3. pay degradation is undermining the professional status and ability to retain university staff (both ARPS and academic)
4. branches have fought against redundancies on an individual basis but we need a concerted UK wide campaign. 

Conference resolves:

1. to combine the national pay campaign and a campaign for sector-wide job security
2. to ballot for industrial action on these grounds.

   CARRIED AS AMENDED

HE3A.1  Higher education committee

Add after notes:

HESC believes casualisation props up the broken UK university system and exacerbates job insecurity.

Add new point at end of resolves:

To work with other trade unions and student unions to end casualisation in universities.

CARRIED

HE4  Fight the Funding Crisis in Higher Education - University of Bath

HESC notes:

1. over sixty HE institutions are facing job losses, and course and department closures
2. public funding for higher education is now inadequate.

HESC believes that:

1. job losses are unnecessary and will lead to increased workload and stress for those who keep their jobs
2. the higher education funding model should be overhauled so that the sector is run as a public service.

HESC instructs HEC to organise:

1. a UK-wide campaign with other unions and the NUS to fight cuts in HE, demanding an overhaul of HE funding with free tuition and maintenance grants for all students
2. submission of a claim to UCEA in support of protection for all jobs, degrees, and departments
3. a ballot on industrial action should UCEA not implement protection against redundancies and closures.  

   CARRIED

HE5  Collectivise the fight against cuts in HE - Composite: University of Liverpool, Dundee University, Newcastle University

Conference notes:

1. the broken funding model and the HE employers' offensive on jobs
2. branches like Brunel, Dundee and Newcastle leading the coordinated fight against redundancies
3. the difficulties in fighting cuts one branch at a time.

Conference believes:

1. we are stronger when we stand together
2. a carefully coordinated branch-by-branch dispute over guaranteed job security can collectivise the fight to defend jobs in HE.

Conference resolves:

1. to ask every HEI to guarantee they will make no voluntary or compulsory redundancies for the next 2 academic years
2. where guarantees are not given, to authorise each branch to enter into dispute
3. to organise simultaneous ballots over job security in these branches
4. to organise simultaneous industrial action (variable by devolved nation) over job security
5. to organise mass demonstrations (variable by devolved nation) during industrial action
6. to share data on cuts and host an online organising meeting for all branches each week.

   CARRIED (without points ii, iii, iv)

HE6  Capping HE salaries - University of Exeter

Conference notes: 

1. DUCU's motion proposing capping Durham salaries at £100k
2. DUCU estimated saving £2.5m-£3m pa
3. earning £100k puts people comfortably in top 4% of earners nationally
4. industry-wide mass redundancies
5. cutting productive staff sends HEIs into earnings spirals; they run fewer modules/courses; recruit and accommodate fewer students; produce fewer REF-able outputs.

Conference believes: 

1. £3m pa savings are non-trivial for HEIs
2. capping salaries achieves savings without earnings spirals
3. these savings should mitigate HE's mental health crisis: easing workload pressures, preserving jobs, increasing staff; pay uplifts for lowest-paid staff
4. this strengthens staff HE needs to get through this crisis period
5. serious consideration of pay-capping widens the horizons of possibility for HE efficiencies, currently focussed on cutting jobs or restricting salaries of lower-paid comrades.

Conference resolves:

1. to direct negotiators to investigate whether a sector-wide pay cap should be included in JNCHES negotiations. 

CARRIED

HE7  National Framework Agreement (NFA) and the UCU Ratification Panel - Southern HE regional committee

Conference notes that there is increasing evidence of enforced deviation in local contracts from the terms and conditions of the National Framework Agreement.

Conference is adamant that widespread national underfunding of education must not be used as a pretext for university management teams undermining the provisions of our NFA.

Conference further notes that in recent years the Ratification Panel at UCU Head Office has ceased to function and has not provided oversight and support to local Branches in monitoring proposed local contractual changes at Universities.

Conference calls on the HEC to work towards:

1. the reinstatement of the Ratification Panel
2. the provision of an online inventory of the local agreements of all universities in the UK together with deviations from the National Framework Agreement
3. the provision of CPD on the National Framework Agreement for local branch officers.

CARRIED

HE8  These are the days - industrial calendars - Heriot-Watt University

Conference notes:

1. term times and exam periods vary
2. timing industrial action to suit all branches is tricky.

Conference believes a readily available matrix of key dates for each institution, arranged by nation or region, would assist in making decisions related to industrial action (IA)

Conference instructs:

1. HEC to arrange a form to be sent annually to branches to allow the compilation of a matrix of teaching term, exam, and other key dates for their institutions for the coming year
2. that this matrix be made available to branches online such that it can be seen by branches, and by delegates to any meetings discussing IA, including but not limited to HEC, Congress, Conference and BDMs
3. the time required to collect this data does not provide justification for delaying implementation of decisions by democratic bodies of the union on IA.

CARRIED

HE9  Defend HE: Action on Jobs and Pay - UCU Scotland

Conference deplores:   

1. the threatened (compulsory) redundancies at an increasing number of universities
2. the reduction in real-term funding and increasing dependence on student fees
3. the continuing prevalence of casualisation, including zero-hour contracts
4. the massive drop in pay in real terms.  

Conference calls on HEC and negotiators to:  

1. organise a massive campaign with active involvement of members and branches for full funding of HE 
2. organise a media and social media campaign, lobby for parliament and members writing to MPs on full funding
3. actively support all branches in dispute and taking industrial action, including organising twinning with other branches, publicising and encouraging support for pickets, rallies etc., access to fighting fund and support in setting up hardship funds
4. publicise the links between strong industrial action on pay and action to support jobs and encourage action against casualisation.  

   CARRIED

HE10  Defending Black Workers Facing Job Cuts - Black members' standing committee

Conference notes:

1. the likelihood of job cuts falling disproportionately on Black workers in Higher Education (HE), exacerbating existing inequalities
2. the systemic barriers Black staff face, including pay gaps, precarious contracts, and underrepresentation in senior roles
3. the need for urgent, sector-wide action to protect Black workers' jobs, rights, and career progression and, furthermore, Black curricula.

Conference believes:

1. job cuts risk deepening structural racial inequalities in HE
2. UCU must defend Black workers from disproportionate redundancies and the erosion of Black curricula.

Conference resolves to:

1. demand all institutions conduct full Equality Impact Assessments before implementing job cuts
2. push for moratoriums on compulsory redundancies, requesting institutions explore alternatives, e.g. voluntary severance schemes and redeployment
3. require universities to publish demographic data on redundancies and retention
4. provide targeted legal and campaign support for Black staff facing discriminatory job losses
5. support FOI requests to obtain equality data.

CARRIED

L1  National Demonstration in Newcastle - Newcastle University

Notes:

1. the increasing threat of compulsory redundancies across UK higher education
2. the ongoing threat of compulsory redundancies at Newcastle University, which has escalated in the past week
3. Bridget Phillipson's position as Secretary of State for Education 
4. Chris Day's position as Russell Group Chair.

Believes:

1. that there is no financial need for compulsory redundancies at Newcastle University
2. that as other University Executives remove the threat of redundancies, Newcastle University Executive Board (UEB) stands out as a cruel outlier
3. this dispute is of national significance as per Notes 3. And 4
4. every branch in the UK has a vested interest in the success of Newcastle's resistance.

Resolves:

1. to call for a national demonstration in Newcastle aiming for week beginning 2nd June
2. to invite all UCU branches in the UK, alongside trade unions from across all sectors
3. to call upon UCU HQ to organise and fund transport to Newcastle.

CARRIED

L2  Academic Boycott of the University of East Anglia (UEA) - University of East Anglia

Conference notes that:

1. UEA management is pushing compulsory redundancies despite reaching 95% of their targeted savings through voluntary means
2. pursuing compulsory redundancies represents a serious breach of industrial relations at UEA.

Conference resolves to:

1. request UCU's Higher Education Committee (HEC) to declare a formal academic boycott (greylisting) of UEA.
2. call on UCU to implement this boycott when UEA issues notification of compulsory redundancies.

The HEC is instructed to ask UCU members, trade unions, labour movement organisations to support UEA UCU by:

1. not applying for advertised jobs at UEA
2. not speaking at or organising academic conferences or events at UEA
3. not accepting visiting professor or researcher positions at UEA
4. not contributing to any academic journal edited at or produced by UEA
5. resigning/not accepting any service roles at UEA i.e. external examining, board membership, consultancy etc.

CARRIED

HE11  Protect casualised staff amid budget cuts and redundancies - Anti-casualisation committee

HESC notes that:

1. universities have announced voluntary and compulsory redundancy schemes, alongside budget cuts.
2. invisible or hidden redundancies of staff on fixed-term, open-ended with review dates and hourly contracts are already happening, with contracts not renewed or hours reduced, dramatically increasing the precarity of casualised staff and increasing the workload of those who remain. 

HESC believes that:

1. threats of redundancies affect all staff independent of their contract type
2. solidarity means protecting all workers from redundancies. 

HESC resolves to:

1. ensure that any actions opposing voluntary or compulsory redundancies does not disproportionately affect casualised staff who could be used as "buffers" to shield others from redundancy
2. ensure that any campaigns against redundancies must also protect and defend the roles of casualised staff.

   CARRIED

HE12  Resisting the triple threat: Trump, AI and marketisation in HE - London HE regional committee

HESC notes that

1. UK Higher Education faces a major market crisis with OfS predicting 70% of English Universities to run at a loss next session
2. UK HE also faces an anti-intellectual threat driven by popular misunderstandings of generative AI and potential impacts on graduate jobs
3. these two threats combine with Donald Trump's second US presidency, promoting 'anti-woke science' discourses from politicians, including from Conservative and Reform parties, to create an existential threat to UK HE.

HESC believes the question, What is University For? must be central to our defence.

HESC resolves to

1. launch a series of UK-wide public debates hosted by UCU branches to debate these questions, inviting politicians and the media
2. call on UK Government to invest in HE and boost critical thinking in all aspects of the curriculum
3. integrate this programme into a fight to defend jobs and courses in the sector.

   CARRIED

HE13  For higher education (HE) funding based on its real needs - University College London

HESC notes:

1. the marketisation of HE has led to its degradation, staff redundancies, increased student fees and workload intensification.
2. numerous branches are fighting back those redundancies.

HESC believes

1. the current situation is a direct and natural result of marketisation, enacted by a series of governments, Labour, Tory, and Coalition.
2. the current funding model of HE is fit for profit-making businesses and not for institutions serving society.
3. HE funding needs to be guided by the needs of HE employees, students, and society at large, not the constraints of marketisation and profit.
4. alternative funding models within the parameters of marketisation will not serve those needs.
5. government relief for failing universities as loans or bail-outs normalises universities as public-private enterprises, and it cannot be the heart of our demands.

HESC calls for fully state-funded HE, funded at the level of real social needs, free and accessible for all. Abolition of all tuition fees.

CARRIED

HE14  Trade union dispute with Secretary of State for Education over funding - Composite: University of Essex, Goldsmiths University of London, Queen Mary University of London

Sector conference notes:

1. UK Higher Education is in crisis and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost
2. UCU Northern Region call for urgent action on sector funding, and UCU commitment to 'defending jobs, free education'
3. the funding model for HE in England is determined by the Secretary of State for Education (Higher Education and Research Act 2017)
4. recent legal advice commissioned by UCU members shows the viability of a trade dispute with the Secretary of State over the funding of HE. 

Sector conference resolves:

1. to open a trade dispute with the Secretary of State for Education over HE funding
2. to coordinate with other HE unions and students to build wide support for the dispute
3. to campaign to build awareness and support for the dispute, highlighting the direct link between sector funding, employment conditions and student experience.

   CARRIED

HE14A.1  Composite - London regional committee, University of Liverpool

Insert before Resolves a, "a. To open a trades dispute with UCEA over pay and/or pay-related matters (Four Fights), and/or a serial dispute with employers over no compulsory redundancies;".  

Renumber Resolves, and amend Resolves b (previously a) to insert "As part of either or both disputes, to" at the start of that point (replacing 'To'). 

LOST

HE14A.2   Composite - University of Liverpool, University of Brighton

Add resolves d, To treat such a dispute as one possible form of action among others, maintaining the option of taking co-ordinated/UK-wide action in furtherance of disputes with UCEA over pay or jobs in the meantime.

LOST

HE15  Securing financial security and effective governance in higher education - University College London

HESC notes:

The most recent TRAC (2022-23) shows a research deficit of c.£4.6bn, i.e. 68% of Full Economic Costs across HEIs. That in the last 12 months university employers have announced plans for over 5,000 redundancies, with a further 5,000 predicted.

HESC believes:

The crisis engulfing UK HE is the consequence of a deep-seated funding and governance crisis, affecting the UK university model as a whole. 

HESC resolves to call the GS to ask the Secretary of State to:

1. offer an alternative, sustainable funding model for research and teaching, and ensure that FECs for external grants are 100%-funded
2. propose a new model ensuring representation and influence of frontline academics in HEI governing bodies.
3. ensure that the Charters and Statutes of HEIs contain clauses requiring prudential and anticyclical management of finances, so that reserves are built to ensure sectoral resilience, staff job security, and students' right to education.

   CARRIED

HE16  Reclaiming HE as a common good needs agile strategy - University of Edinburgh

Conference notes: 

1. destructive marketisation is imperiling jobs and degrading conditions of higher education workers 
2. resolution requires creative and impactful action on many fronts, using multiple tactics 
3. our historic USS victory highlights the importance of research and media work, as well as industrial action 
4. current membership density means UCU must build broad coalitions to achieve wins for members. 

Resolves: 

1. to continue media campaigns around HE as a common good, including showing how the academic vandalism of HE 'leaders' is impacting local communities 
2. to propose models for addressing funding crises, including controlled student distribution  
3. to develop local, regional and UK-wide campaigns to increase membership density and member engagement 
4. to support branches in dispute to develop plans for impactful forms of local industrial action, not only strikes, and by organising support from across the sector  
5. to enter into partnership agreements with other HE unions as soon as possible.

   CARRIED

Section 4, USS

HE17  USS - Higher education committee

HE sector conference notes the report and approves the recommendations of the SWG contained in UCUBANHE/92.  

CARRIED

HE18  Improving USS member benefits - UCU Scotland

Conference notes:  

1. the significant valuation 'surplus'
2. the extensive work done by the negotiators in fulfilling motion on investigating conditional indexation (CI)
3. the threat of a further period of very high inflation over the next few years.  

Conference believes that  

1. there is potential for improving benefits without an increase in contributions
2. benefit improvements should be progressive and pay particular attention to improving inflation protection
3. UCU has sufficiently investigated CI to take a policy position.  

Conference instructs the USS negotiators to  

1. negotiate for improve benefits without an increase in contributions and to prioritise restoring full CPI inflation protection followed by augmentation for all members.  
2. take a policy position of opposition to CI.  
3. continue involvement in the CI working group and any other work on CI in order to defend member interests and ensure that all the risks are fully investigated.   

   FELL (consequence of HE17 being carried)

HE18A.1  University of Sheffield

Insert in (iii) insert 'and benefits' after 'all the risks' 

FELL (motion 18 having fallen)

HE19  USS divestment from Tesla, Meta, and Alphabet - Bangor University

HESC notes:

1. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Google's enthusiastic embrace of Trump's administration
2. Netherlands' largest pension fund has sold all of its shares in Tesla, Meta and Alphabet
3. USS currently invests in all three companies
4. USS defined contribution ethical investment plans prohibit investment in companies that do not meet the established Ethical Guidelines
5. ethical guidelines were established following member survey conducted in 2020 and 2021.

HESC believes:

1. investment in Alphabet, Meta and Tesla is no longer compliant with ethical guidelines
2. members who choose ethical options for investing their funds do not want to invest in these companies.

HESC resolves:

1. to lobby USS for immediate removal of all three companies from USS ethical investment plans
2. to push USS to investigate whether these stocks are still beneficial for the general investment portfolio.

   CARRIED

Section 5, Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS)

HE20  Defending TPS in post-92 institutions - Higher education committee

Conference notes the threats to access to TPS in post-92 HEIs, despite this access previously being promised by government and enshrined in the TPS scheme regulations. These threats include:

1. threatened 'fire and rehire' via subsidiary companies to avoid offering TPS (e.g. Coventry University)
2. incentivising opt-out from TPS
3. offering 'low-cost', defined contribution alternatives.

Conference further notes the negative impact of a fall in the number of active TPS members.

Conference believes that TPS must remain the professional pensions scheme for educators in post-92 HEIs.

Conference asks HEC to defend in the strongest possible terms the right of members in post-92 HEIs to membership of TPS, including

1. support for branches affected by these threats
2. raising the issue with employers and with the DfE
3. pressing for government funding to meet increased employer contributions (as has happened in Scotland)
4. continuing to resist the use of subsidiary companies.

   CARRIED AS AMENDED

HE20A.1  Higher education committee

After notes add:

HESC believes it is essential to ensure pension justice for casualised or low paid workers, who may leave the TPS altogether, go into inferior schemes or receive inaccurate contributions based how their working hours are calculated.

Add to resolves

5. to call a TPS meeting for post 92s and to include serious discussion of low paid and casualised participation and justice within the scheme. This benefits the scheme as a whole and strengthens participation.

   CARRIED

HE20A.2  University of Westminster

Under resolves add the following: 

2. investigate the legality of alternative pension schemes offered to academic staff (as introduced for example at Greenwich and Kingston Universities), and whether they are legally consistent with TPS rules and the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. 

   CARRIED

HE21  Defending Teachers Pension Fund - Composite: University of Greenwich, Nottingham Trent University

HESC notes:

1. senior managers within some post-92 institutions have indicated support for removal of the duty to offer TPS and UCEA have lobbied government on "a review of HE participation" in TPS
2. some post-92 institutions have implemented their own pension scheme
3. some institutions employ staff via subsidiaries to avoid TPS obligations.

HESC believes:

1. implementation of a separate pension scheme to undermine TPS is damaging
2. employing staff through subsidiary companies to avoid statutory obligations is unacceptable.

HESC resolves to:

1. treat any situation in which attempts are made to subsidiarise as disputes of national significance and resource appropriately
2. lobby against the UCEA request to allow universities to opt out of TPS
3. lobby for funding in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, similar - to that offered in Scotland, to cover increased employer contributions
4. hold a national meeting about challenges to TPS for all eligible branches within 6 months.

   CARRIED

Section 7, Anti-casualisation work

HE22  Linking casualised redundancies to the fightback in HE - Higher education committee

HEC notes:

1. the HE redundancy crisis often means casualised staff to be hit first: losing hours, contracts not renewed: work redistributed without formal redundancy procedures or compensation. This has a high impact on equality strands. UCU lacks centralised data on this. Employers use bogus arguments to load hours onto overworked FTE staff
2. casualised job losses are key in coordinated UK-wide industrial action. Dundee shows branches fighting early on for casualised workers strengthens members' ability to fight for permanent staff jobs.

HESC resolves:

1. to urgently survey all branches on: loss of casualised teaching hours; non-renewal of contracts; changes to local agreements on casualised work
2. immediate data on the impact of job losses on equality groups to strengthen bargaining and industrial action.

To produce        

1. a UK-wide report for HEC and ACC (then branches) exposing the impact of redundancies on casualised staff
2. a bargaining and action guide for branches to defend casualised workers.

   CARRIED

HE23  Demand transparency on the extent of casualisation in HE - Anti-casualisation committee

HESC notes that:

1. approximately 75 000 academics are on casualised fixed-term or hourly contracts
2. these numbers are underestimated as many casualised staff are employed on "open-ended contracts with review date" (OERD), which are, in all but name, fixed-term contracts
3. alongside more visible redundancies, there are hidden or invisible redundancies of casualised staff whose hours are slashed and contracts are not renewed.

HESC believes that data about the true extent of casualisation in higher education are necessary.

HESC resolves to request these data, covering the past five years and moving forward, from universities:

1. number of fixed-term vs open-ended contracts per academic family
2. full-time equivalent and head count of staff on hourly contracts
3. number of Ad-hoc payments (e.g. 'Form 100') used
4. number of academics and ARPS staff on OERD
5. equalities data (age, gender, race, disability) for the above.

   CARRIED

HE24  Transparency on casualisation and fighting hidden redundancies  - University of Edinburgh

HESC notes that: 

1. HESA data do not provide a clear picture on the extent of casualisation in HE
2. amid sector-wide budget cuts and threats of compulsory redundancies, hidden redundancies of "easily-disposable" casualised staff are already happening (hours are slashed and fixed-term contracts terminated), increasing the workload of those who remain.  

HESC believes that:  

1. data about the true extent of casualisation in Higher Education are necessary
2. poor data invisibilise the true extent of casualisation. 

HESC resolves to:  

1. obtain the following, alongside equalities data: number of staff on casualised contracts, including time-limited open-ended contracts, continuous length of service on precarious contracts, full-time equivalent and head count of staff on hourly contracts
2. ensure that campaigns against compulsory redundancies do not disproportionally lead to budget cuts targeting casualised staff; requesting the above data is key
3. icampaign against hidden redundancies alongside campaigning against compulsory redundancies.

   CARRIED

HE25  Overcome grotesque pay injustice - London Metropolitan University 

Conference notes: 

1. most hourly-paid teaching in HE is grievously underpaid compared with similar work by permanent academic employees. The principle (JNCHES 2004) that a comprehensive 'scheduled teaching hour' rate, acknowledging 'all work done in connection with teaching' be evaluated in relation to lecturer payscales to determine 'the proper pay grade', is disregarded
2. evaluation exercises in London Metropolitan University, informed by surveys and accepted workload allocation tariffs, show that even institutions that explicitly recognise, for example, 2.5 hours of work per teaching hour, significantly underestimate the work required and, hence, underpay.

Congress resolves to:

1. develop a generally applicable framework, informed by current workload allocation models, to evaluate hourly-paid teaching
2. undertake a nationwide survey, rigorously to evaluate hourly-paid teaching in terms of time and pay, in relation to work done by permanent employees
3. publish and use the results of this exercise to reform pay practices and achieve equal payment for similar work.

   CARRIED

HE26  Building and organising in private providers in higher education - University of Sheffield International College

HESC notes:

1. private providers threaten job security across the sector
2. the hard work of UCU members to organise and build the union, campaigning for and winning recognition within private providers. 

HESC resolves:

1. to map all private provision and develop a comprehensive strategy with the aim of reaching national agreements and delivering coordinated support to UCU members through research into the scope, scale and impact of private provision and recognition status of each branch / group, including surveying UCU members and HE institutions with staff working for private providers 
2. to actively support building the union in private provision through
   • a national organising conference of UCU members working for private providers
   • building a network of established HE branches in institutions where private providers exist to support organising
   • updated bargaining advice with private provider information to maximise successful campaigns
3. report progress to Congress 2026.

   CARRIED

Section 8, Research staff

HE27  MRC unit funding cuts and open-ended contracts - University of Glasgow

Conference notes: 

1. the Medical Research Council (MRC) has withdrawn funding from its Research Units, including SPHSU at the University of Glasgow, resulting in over 70 redundancy notifications already, and more jobs at risk as other units close
2. most universities transition research staff onto open-ended contracts occasionally, but without clear policy for how to decide who to retain, the process of protecting staff jobs is arbitrary and subject to local whims
3. UCU has launched the Researcher Manifesto calling for a pooled resourcing model for research staff. 

Conference mandates HEC to: 

1. investigate whether any universities have clear, open policies on how research staff move onto fully open-ended contracts
2. call on all UK universities to introduce a pooled resourcing model
3. call on the MRC and the UK Government to reverse their decision and restore funding to SPHSU and other affected units. 

   CARRIED

Section 10, Academic related, professional services staff

HE28  ARPS members deserve career progression - Academic related, professional services staff committee

Notes: 

1. UCU's ARPS Manifesto demands the establishment of a career framework, promotional pathways and reward structure as envisaged by the 2003 Framework Agreement
2. ARPS members indicate career progression is a crucial issue and promotional pathways are not available. 

Believes: 

1. ARPS staff play a central role in HE and UCU  
2. ARPS members deserve career progression pathways reflecting skills and expertise
3. promoted ARPS members don't always move unions to the appropriate one for their grade.

Resolves to: 

1. remind national negotiators of the central role of ARPS members
2. pursue meaningful career progression pathways for ARPS staff as part of JNCHES negotiations
3. develop guidance and training for branches to pursue pay, progression and promotion parity 
4. develop guidelines for ARPS staff to help them join an appropriate union
5. promote the work above and ARPS member engagement via the email network, open meetings and annual meetings. 

   CARRIED

New paragraph: Equality

HE29  Black history, black studies and anticolonial history - Black members standing committee

Conference denounces attacks on jobs and disciplinary and the particular risk to specialist areas Black History, Black Studies and anticolonial history and thought.

Conference believes:

1. these areas of debate bring new generations into energetic intellectual inquiry
2. attacks on taught routes narrow opportunities for students and communities, particularly when regional provision is threatened
3. loss of postgraduate specialisms threatens the career paths of future scholars and thinkers, and to the representation of Black intellectual traditions in the academy.

Conference agrees:

1. to create popular educational materials on the importance of Black and anticolonial intellectual traditions for UK education
2. to host a student and community facing online event highlighting the role of Black and anticolonial intellectual traditions
3. to map regional access to taught programmes including Black and anticolonial intellectual traditions
4. to work with community and student groups to document the importance of these areas to access and progression for Black and other local communities.

CARRIED

L3  Post 92 negotiators

HESC notes:

1. the absence of any post 92 candidate for pay negotiator for election at congress
2. the specific issues impacting on pay in post 92 institutions including unfunded TPS changes.

HESC resolves:

1. to invite post 92 candidates to come forward.
2. for an additional election for a post 92 negotiator to be held as soon as is practical, to be elected by delegates to 2026 HESC.

   CARRIED

HE30  Inclusive recruitment procedures in HE - Disabled members standing committee

HESC notes online recruitment processes across HE discriminate against disabled people, increasing pay and progression gaps and impeding workplace diversity.

HESC notes the AI Employment Bill, developed by TUC, seeks to regulate employers' use of AI systems.

Increased use of AI in recruitment processes, such as personality tests, impacts disabled people through biased systems and discriminatory processes.
Inclusive employment practices are essential to equity, academic freedom, and quality education.

The Equality Act 2010 requires every employer to make recruitment processes fully accessible. Online recruitment (without built-in anonymous reasonable adjustments) -creates a further barrier for disabled people to access recruitment and requires them to declare.

HESC resolves to campaign for

1. inclusive candidate processes in HE
2. automation of job processes and built-in anonymous reasonable adjustment identification
3. campaign for universities to abide by existing legislation on inclusion and employers to conduct transparent equality impact assessments on recruitment and employment practices.

   NOT TAKEN

HE31  The gender promotion gap in higher education - Women members standing committee

Conference notes:

Identifying women in higher education (HE) are underrepresented in professoriate and leadership roles. Progression is hindered by structural barriers, including unconscious bias, caring responsibilities, lack of mentorship, and opaque promotion processes. They are less likely to be encouraged to apply for promotion and experience greater scrutiny in research outputs and leadership evaluation. Equality intersections compound this. Job insecurity disproportionately limits promotion.

Conference resolves to:

1. demand accountability from HE institutions through gender equity audits, pay gap reports, and supportive pathways to senior roles
2. advocate for fairer evaluation metrics that recognise the full spectrum of academic contributions, including teaching, pastoral care, and service roles
3. strengthen mentorship and sponsorship programs that actively support women's progression, especially in returning from career breaks
4. mobilise branches to collectively hold institutions accountable for addressing gender disparities, and campaign for binding sector-wide agreements on equitable career progression, and mandatory gender equity training.

NOT TAKEN

HE32  Ending the intersectional pay gap - Women members standing committee

HESC notes:

1. Black, disabled, migrant, and LGBTQ+ women suffer multiple pay inequalities while employers obscure the facts by refusing to publish meaningful data
2. casualisation exacerbates pay inequality. Without penalties, employers ignore multiple oppressions and pay discrimination. Intersectional analysis deepen structural inequalities. Pay gap reporting is often a tick-box exercise without real accountability
3. fighting for intersectional pay justice is core to our industrial action and must be embedded in bargaining, recruitment, and campaigning. 

HESC resolves:

1. demand all institutions publish transparent intersectional pay audits and time-bound action plans to close all pay gaps
2. embed intersectional pay gap demands into future pay claims
3. a high-profile national campaign exposing institutions that refuse to close pay gaps
4. develop bargaining guidance to help branches using pay data in local negotiations
5. campaign for financial penalties for institutions that fail to close pay gaps.

NOT TAKEN

HE32A.1  University of Glasgow

Change third sentence of HESC notes to:  

'Intersectional analysis reveals deeper structural inequalities.'  

Add to HESC notes and renumber:  

3. 'Inadequate reasonable adjustments, including to the promotions process, disadvantage disabled members, particularly those with intersectional characteristics or who are casualised, and add to the pay gap.'  

Add at the end of the third resolves:  

'including by not providing adequate reasonable adjustments, including to the promotion process.'  

Add 'including on reasonable adjustments to support promotion and progression' to the fourth resolves after 'bargaining guidance' 

HE33  LGBT+ dimensions of the sectoral crisis including redundancies - LGBT+ members standing committee

Conference notes with concern

1. increasingly standardised language across the sector around 'right-size' institutions.
2. this language almost always means reductions.
3. the impact of the trend towards larger, more team-taught and less specialist modules in the name of 'simplification' of degrees and mitigation of risks to teaching.

Conference believes this will have a disproportionate impact on specialist teaching and teaching about marginalised groups, e.g. LGBT+ people.

Conference calls for

1. exploration of the impact on LGBT+ staff including where universities are not doing enough to monitor the impact of the crisis on minority groups
2. work with professional, community and student organisations to monitor and resist the impact on LGBT+ courses / research
3. continuation of UCU commitment to the leading work on LGBT+ research conferences including publication of conference papers
4. support for LGBT+ staff minimising the psychological, mental, physical impact (particularly for casualised/fixed-term workers).

NOT TAKEN

HE34  The Sullivan Review - Goldsmiths, University of London

This conference notes 

1. the 'Review on data, statistics and research on sex and gender' targeted trans and non-binary (TNB) people while excluding them from its research team 
2. the review is outside the author's expertise and is regarded as not 'independent' 
3. the European Court of Justice ruling C-247/23 requiring data to reflect TNB people's lived identities 
4. the opposition of the overwhelming majority of TNB people.

This conference believes 

1. all minorities should be fully involved in constructing policy that impacts them 
2. the Review's imposition of binary gender is incorrect scientifically, is very similar to the Trump administration's imposition binary gender categories and undermines academic freedom. 

This conference resolves 

1. to mandate UCU leadership to work with trans groups in HE to pressure the DSIT to include TNB groups in producing new data standards relating to sex and gender 
2. to protect academic freedom in this area. 

   NOT TAKEN

HE35  Stopping the growth of the far right in HE - University of Brighton

Conference notes:

1. the far right is growing, boosted by Trump and Musk
2. the electoral breakthrough of Nigel Farage's far right Reform UK, which claims 200,000 members, five MPs and 70+ councillors
3. Reform UK and other far right groups aim to build support in universities
4. Tommy Robinson's efforts to build a fascist street movement in Britain.

Conference believes:

1. Reform UK is setting the agenda in British politics, pushing racist scapegoating of refugees, migrants and Muslims, along with targeting trans rights, women's rights and the right to protest
2. HEIs are an important battleground for the struggle to defeat racism and fascism. 

Conference resolves:

1. to continue to support future initiatives against the far right organised by Stand Up To Racism, the TUC and others
2. to work with NUS and campus unions to produce dedicated anti-racist materials, and organise speaking tours
3. to encourage branches to organise staff-student assemblies against racism and fascism.

   NOT TAKEN

HE36  Migrant access to UCU advice - Migrant members' standing committee 

HESC notes:

1. migrants moving to the UK may require advice on employment matters, but are not eligible for UCU membership or services until they are employed in UK HE
2. UCU has reciprocal agreements with HE unions in other country, which may give members of those unions some access to UCU advice and representation when they are working in the UK.

HESC resolves:

1. to publicise existing reciprocal agreements, including listing them on the UCU website
2. to explore the signing of further bridging agreements with HE unions in other countries, with the aim of allowing migrant staff access to advice from UCU before accepting employment in UK HE
3. to instruct HEC to explore a rule change to allow staff coming from countries where UCU does not have a reciprocal agreement with a local HE union to access UCU services prior to employment in UK HE.

NOT TAKEN

New paragraph: Misconduct

HE37  Accountability for misconduct across institutions - University of Leeds

Sector conference notes: 

1. endemic: 
   • discrimination, bullying, boundary crossing and sexual violence within and between institutions
   • abuse of early career researchers including plagiarism of ideas by academics in secure staff positions, encouraged by funders recommending seniors lead on early career ideas
2. institutional policies protecting staff who abuse collaborators from other institutions. 

Sector conference believes: 

1. the right to freedom from abuse at work is universal
2. abusers should not be immune to claims from outside their institution
3. cross-sector policy change will produce culture change, reducing discrimination and abuse. 

Sector conference resolves: 

1. HEC to pursue shared policy across HE to handle cross institutional misconduct
2. UCU to negotiate with employers for policy change protecting collaborators from other institutions
3. UCU to lobby for funders to start independent investigations within 3 months of institutions not taking sufficient action, and to remove funding from abusers
4. UCU to maintain a public register of offences including naming institutions. 

   NOT TAKEN

HE38  For evidence-based staff-student policies against misconduct - University of Leeds

HESC believes:  

1. UCU should support clear, evidence based policy to prevent abuses of power in HE, which must account for intersectional power relations  
2. clarity on staff-student relationships protects both staff and students.

HESC notes: 

1. regulatory requirements on harassment and sexual misconduct in effect in England from August 2025  
2. most students are uncomfortable with staff student relationships.

HESC resolves to:  

1. consult with UCU's equalities standing committees and anti-casualisation committee, NUS, 1752 Group, and other relevant specialist and survivor organisations 
2. call branches to: 
   • work with employers and students' unions, drawing on peer-reviewed research to develop professional boundaries between staff and students  
   • seek policies to prohibit staff from entering intimate relationships with students for whom they have current or potential teaching, learning, or pastoral responsibilities, including: 
     • comprehensive, intersectional training and awareness raising on professional boundaries and preventing sexual harassment across academic hierarchies (including between staff)  
     • development of training for staff handling disclosures. 

NOT TAKEN

New paragraph: Other issues

HE39  Trusted research, human rights and military research and divestment - Higher education committee

HESC deplores continuing support for military research by universities
and funding bodies.

HESC believes that

1. national security should be replaced by global security
2. research shows the best way to achieve peace and international security is research on solving global problems such as climate change and water shortage
3. legislation on trusted research make it more difficult to do research
4. it is hypocritical for government to support the developing military technologies for use in some countries, but not others.

HESC agrees to

1. oppose trusted research.
2. provide a briefing paper on the threat to research posed by 'trusted research', organising and carrying out research that supports and respects all countries and cultures and supporting colleagues who experience difficulties due to it
3. to call on universities to show real concern for human rights by ending all military research and divesting in firms involved in arms sales to Israel. 

NOT TAKEN