The Friday email: 19 September 2025

New Deal for FE update: trade dispute initiated

UCU, along with the other FE unions (NEU, GMB, UNISON and Unite) met the FE England employers' representative Association of Colleges (AoC) on 17 September for the second meeting of the National Joint Forum (NJF).

The AoC made a pay recommendation of 4% for those colleges that can afford to pay it. Many colleges do not follow the AoC recommendation and there is no obligation on employers to implement the uplift as national bargaining outcomes are not binding.

There was no meaningful response from the AoC to the unions' demands. In summary:

• 4% does not close the growing pay gap with schoolteachers pay or start to make good the losses in pay over recent years
• excessive workloads have not been addressed
• we need fully funded and binding national bargaining in further education.

In line with the decisions made by delegates at UCU's further education sector conference (FESC) in May 2025, UCU will now move to set out disputes with England FE employers. Trade dispute letters have been sent to employers today (19 September). We set out our demands to college leaders and put them on notice that if they do not respond meaningfully, then the next step will be UCU moving to ballot thousands of members in England FE for industrial action.

College leaders now have a clear choice; make a serious offer or the sector will be hit hard with industrial action this autumn. You can click here for the latest updates on the New Deal for FE and click here for the list of UCU FE England branches in dispute.

We are the University: higher education industrial action ballot

The elected representatives on UCU's higher education committee voted to call an industrial action ballot for all members covered by the JNCHES 2025/26 negotiating umbrella.

The ballot comes after HEC representatives considered the results of the consultative electronic ballot on the higher education pay and working conditions 2025/26 final offer from the employers' representative Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).   

The other campus unions (UNISON, GMB, Unite and EIS) are also proceeding with statutory industrial action ballots of their members. We are making arrangements with Civica Election Services, the independent election scrutineer. The vote will be conducted by post as required by law and is provisionally set to open in the week commencing Monday 20 October, and it will run for approximately six weeks.

Stop the Cuts! Dispute at UK universities

University of Nottingham: members will begin a period of industrial action for two weeks from 22 September. A further two weeks are planned from 13 October, in the ongoing dispute regarding job losses. University management is making significant cuts and in this first wave there remains 270+ support and academic related staff at risk; this is despite hundreds already leaving via various voluntary schemes. Academic staff will be next and this will likely be announced in the coming months.

University of Leicester: members have announced that they will take fifteen days of industrial action (29 September-17 October) in response to the university's plans to slash jobs. The action comes after an overwhelming 80% of staff backed strike action in a ballot with a turnout of 62%. University managers have told staff in six areas (geography, geology and the environment; education; chemistry; modern languages; history; film studies) that their jobs are at risk as they seek to cut staffing budget by £11m. Hundreds of professional services staff have also been told they face a review that may lead to job losses. You can send messages of solidarity to the branch, and click here to make donations to their strike fund.

University of Bradford: staff will down tools for ten days in a fight to save jobs; staff will strike every weekday from 22 September to 3 October in their dispute over redundancies, disrupting the first two weeks of the new academic year. Click here for the full story.  

Imperial College London: staff at Imperial voted to take industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions. The decision follows a ballot in which 77% of participating staff backed strike action, on a turnout of 59%. The dispute centres on management's refusal to increase its below inflation 2% pay award. When consulted, members of all three recognised unions (UCU, UNISON and Unite) voted to reject it.

University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI): an industrial action ballot opened at UHI in a dispute over job cuts and the use of compulsory redundancies. UCU members employed at UHI's Executive Office are being asked if they are prepared to take part both in strike action and action short of strike. The ballot will close on Tuesday 7 October.

University of Dundee: some eleven months after news of the financial and management crisis broke at Dundee, staff are still facing brutal cuts and the very real possibility of compulsory redundancies. After taking multiple days of strike action earlier in the year, Dundee UCU members are re-balloting to extend their mandate to fight cuts and save jobs. The re-ballot will run to 6 October. You can send messages of solidarity here.

Lancaster University: members are continuing to campaign against proposals to sack over 400 staff as part of management plans to slash £35m from the pay bill. UCU members have held stalls in Lancaster on Saturdays over the summer, and have spoken at a recent meeting of Lancaster City Council. They have scoured the support of both the Labour and Green groups on Lancaster City Council, and have launched a statutory industrial action ballot on Friday 12 September.

University of Sheffield: an industrial action ballot opened in late August, in a dispute over management's plans to put staff in five academic areas at risk of redundancy, as well as continued risk of redundancy to professional services staff across the university. The university announced reviews of staffing in chemistry, civil engineering, management, materials science, and East Asian studies.

Bangor University UCU members have passed a motion of no confidence in the vice-chancellor and chief finance officer due to cuts to staff and budgets and will now begin balloting for industrial action. See coverage in BBC News.

Industrial action ballots are also running at Sheffield Hallam University, University of the West of Scotland, and Oxford Brookes University.

Industrial action at INTO Manchester

UCU members working for private provider INTO Manchester will be taking strike action for the first time on Thursday 25 September and Tuesday 30 September in their ongoing fight for a fair pay rise. Picket lines will be in place between 08:15 and 10:15 on both days, outside the INTO Manchester building on Whitworth Street in central Manchester. Messages of support and solidarity can be sent to the branch via UCU's North West regional office.

Gender Pension Gap Day

Last month (21 August), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) marked the 'Gender Pension Gap Day'. This is the date that an average retired woman would run out of pension income, if she were receiving it at the same rate as an average retired man. It is based on research showing that the gender pension gap in the UK is 36.5%.

This level of inequality is unacceptable. The gender pension gap in schemes open to UCU members is also far too high, for example 27.2% in the Teachers' Pension Scheme (England and Wales) according to the latest valuation.

Thankfully, progress is being made. Some UCU members are covered by the Local Government Pension Scheme (England and Wales), which recently consulted on proposals that would close its gender gap significantly, including making all statutory parental leave pensionable.

UCU is pushing for similar measures in all pension schemes covering our members, including in all other public service pension schemes. You can take a simple step to support our campaign, regardless of the scheme you are in yourself, by signing the following petition and encouraging friends and family to do so.

Visa holders and redundancies webinar, 2 October

UCU is holding a webinar on Zoom entitled 'Visa holders and redundancies' on Thursday 2 October (13:00-14:00). You can click here to register.

UCU's migrant members' standing committee (MMSC) has received many queries from migrant members who are facing redundancy and are understandably concerned about how this may impact their visa and visa fees that they have paid. Specialist immigration lawyers Bindmans LLP will be delivering a webinar on the implications of redundancy for those on a visa. If you have any specific questions that you would like addressed, please email these to UCU's equality inbox by 26 September.

International conference on academic freedom, 15 October

UCU, with the support of Education International (EI), is hosting an international conference on academic freedom on Wednesday 15 October. The conference will hear from international trade unions and experts about global and national challenges to academic freedom and will discuss how to build effective union responses, including in the UK. The confirmed keynote speaker is Robert Quinn, executive director of the Scholars at Risk Network.

The conference is free and will be run as a hybrid event. UCU members can either attend online or in person at the Hamilton House Meeting Rooms, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD. In-person places are already all full, but you can still register for online attendance.

Power Up! New Organising 4 Power course

The international organising programme, Organising 4 Power (O4P), has a new online course. It's called 'Power Up!' and is open to all regardless of previous organising experience. The course focuses on building capacity and developing winning campaigns. It will run over four sessions, two in November and two in December, coupled with support sessions from UCU facilitators. Click here for more details and to register.

UCU equality group conferences 2025

This year each of UCU's equality groups will have a one-day hybrid conference. The venue will be UCU head office, and the online platform will be Zoom. Those joining remotely will be able to participate fully in the conference, including voting on motions and attending workshops. When registering for the event delegates must select if they wish to attend the conference/s in-person or remotely.

The days of the conferences are outlined below (all from 11:00-16:00):

• Friday 14 November: women members' annual conference
• Saturday 15 November: LGBT+ members' annual conference
• Thursday 20 November: disabled members' annual conference
• Friday 21 November: Black members' annual conference
• Friday 5 December: migrant members' conference

This year the equality groups conference will have a broad theme of 'Organising against division: building inclusive workplaces, resisting reactionary politics'. To register please use this link, which will take you to the main equality groups conference page.

Counter protests in Glasgow and Falkirk

Stand Up to Racism are encouraging everyone to join counter protests against the far right this weekend in Glasgow (meet at Buchanan Galleries, Saturday 20 September at 12 noon) and Falkirk (meet at Cladhan Hotel, Sunday 21 September at 11am).