Report on UCU's international work - October 2025

Introduction  

This report is an update on the key international activities that UCU has undertaken over the past few months. It is based on a paper given to UCU's International Working Group (IWG) at their meeting on 17 September. 

Academic freedom and HE governance 

1. UCU - in conjunction with our global union federation, Education International (EI) - will be hosting an international conference on academic freedom on 15 October. The keynote address will be given by Robert Quinn, Executive Director of the Scholars at Risk Network, on the global state of academic freedom. The conference will also hear from union leaders in the United States, Norway, Türkiye, Kenya and the Philippines on the different ways in which state repression and interference, managerialism, and the marketisation of academia are undermining academic freedom in their respective jurisdictions.

2. The main purpose of the UCU/EI conference is to learn from sister unions about the challenges to academic freedom and how they are responding, as well as equipping UCU members and branches with a broader understanding of current threats to academic freedom in the UK and abroad. The conference is part of a series of events on academic freedom involving EI, with the first one taking place in Calgary on 7-8 February 2025, which Jo Grady attended on behalf of UCU.
   
   One of the key objectives of UCU's union's international work is the opportunity to learn from education trade unions in other countries. On Wednesday 17 September, the policy team organised a webinar on 'HE governance in a time of crisis'. Although the focus was on governance in UK higher education, the webinar included a contribution from the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) about their successful campaign to defend collegial governance at Maynooth University.  

International solidarity  

3. In line with the decisions made at UCU Congress in May 2025, Palestine remains UCU's priority for international solidarity work. This work has fallen into three main areas: political solidarity, education-focused solidarity and defending free expression and the right to protest in the UK.   

4. In terms of our political work, our key partner remains the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and we continue to support their main activities, for example, either the General Secretary or President has spoken at several of the national marches in London. UCU has also continued to support the regular workplace Days of Action for Palestine (e.g. on 15 May and 2 July). *** The next Workplace Day of Action is on Thursday 9 October *** 

5. As an education union, UCU has continued to speak out against Israel's deliberate destruction of educational and cultural sites in Palestine - a process known as scholasticide. At the end of June, Friends of Birzeit University (Fobzu) held their annual conference on emergency support for Palestinian higher education. UCU was one of the sponsors of the conference (held at SOAS). The event brought together scholars, university leaders, civil society organisations, and policy experts to confront the ongoing scholasticide in Gaza and discuss the role of international academic solidarity. The conference affirmed the leadership and centrality of Palestinian academics as equal partners in the struggle to sustain and rebuild higher education, and called for coordinated, justice-based partnerships between UK and Palestinian universities. It also highlighted the complicity of UK and European institutions in the destruction of Palestinian academic life, underscoring the urgent need for redress and material solidarity.  

6. The conference report is available on the Fobzu website and the event coincided with the publication of an historic statement from the presidents of Gaza's universities. Fobzu have also produced a helpful guide on UK-Palestinian higher education collaboration.   

7. In July, the latest Fobzu-UCU Education, Occupation and Liberation webinar took place. Entitled 'Medical Education Under Scholasticide in Gaza', the webinar featured the voices of Gaza's medical educators and students as they reflected on their experiences of serving under scholasticide. 

8. As part of this education-focused work, UCU has been actively lobbying the UK government to ensure that students from Gaza are able to take up their places at UK universities. For example, in late August we wrote to the FCDO calling for them commit to evacuating every student in Gaza with a British university place for the 2024-25 academic year. This campaign has been led by ordinary academics and UCU members, in particular, Dr Nora Parr, a researcher at the University of Birmingham who has been coordinating efforts to support the students.  *** Due to this pressure, the first 34 students, who have full scholarships, arrived in the UK at the end of September ***   

9. Another key part of UCU's work has been to challenge attacks on the right to protest on Palestine. In July, UCU issued a statement challenging the increasingly authoritarian attacks by the UK government on the Palestine solidarity movement and successfully brought an emergency motion to TUC Congress on the wider attacks on the right to protest. In line with Congress motions, UCU has donated £1000 to the PSC legal defence fund. 

10. In terms of solidarity with Ukraine, we supported the demonstration on 1 June, including supplying a national speaker and a separate video from Jo Grady. We are continuing to publicise regular crowdfunding appeals from the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign (USC) and supported the TUC fringe event entitled 'Strengthen Union Solidarity with Ukraine', where we were represented by our president-elect, Dyfrig Jones.     

11. In June, the UCU President and the international policy officer met with representatives from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (Philippines) and UK-based solidarity organisations, including the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines, to discuss academic freedom and trade union rights in the Philippines. One of the concrete suggestions was to invite a representative from ACT-Philippines to speak at the UCU/EI conference on academic freedom.    

12. Behind the scenes we are continuing to respond to urgent action appeals, either from EI or other affiliated organisations. The main course of action has been to issue protest or solidarity letters, including in the following areas:

    • Myanmar - a letter to the military junta calling for a ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access.

    • Argentina - a letter condemning the Milei government's attacks against teachers' rights and public education.

    • Egypt - in June, a letter to the UK government calling from them to use all diplomatic, political and economic means to secure the immediate release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah. This emergency letter was in response to the hunger strike being undertaken by Alaa's mother - Dr. Laila Soueif - the renowned academic and human rights defender. *** On the 22 September, Alaa was finally released from jail ***

    • Zimbabwe - in June, four local leaders of the Association of University Teachers at the University of Zimbabwe were dismissed for their role in leading a long-running lecturers' strike. UCU sent a solidarity letter to the local branch and has donated £1000 to the union's legal support fund.

    • Colombia - a letter, coordinated by Justice for Colombia (JfC), condemning Marco Rubio's interference in the Colombian judicial system.

13. Attacks on public education, democracy and academic freedom by the Trump administration has led to increased solidarity with our colleagues in the United States (see for example, this statement from European higher education and research unions). Education International (EI) has been encouraging member organisations to express their support for our sister unions in the US (the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association). Jo Grady - as well as other education union leaders - produced solidarity videos for US unions as part of nationwide protests on 4 July.  

14. UCU is planning to build on this solidarity at the forthcoming UCU/EI international conference, where one of the speakers will be the President of the American Association of University Professors. Our solidarity with our US colleagues continues to take various forms, for example, we supported the AFT's pension fund campaign against Tesla by writing a letter to USS about its investment in Elon Musk's company.  

15. Türkiye is another country where democracy and human rights are under assault by an authoritarian administration. In late March, the leadership of our sister union - Eğitim Sen - was placed under house arrest for taking industrial action in solidarity with protesting students and against the growing anti-democratic crackdown. These arrests prompted a series of international solidarity messages by unions in Europe and beyond. While the Eğitim Sen leaders are no longer under house arrest, educational and trade union freedoms remain under pressure in Türkiye. As a result of this, a representative from Eğitim Sen will be speaking at the UCU/EI conference on academic freedom.  

16. Within the European Union, Hungary is a country where human and trade union rights remain under severe attack, particularly in respect of LGBT+ rights. In June, the European trade union movement, including ETUCE, participated in Budapest Pride as an act of solidarity and UCU sent a message of support (from the chair of the LGBT+ Committee) to our sister unions in Hungary.   

Education International and ETUCE

17. UCU continues to be an active member organisation of Education International (EI) and its European region, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE). 

18. At the ETUCE conference in November 2024, UCU's international policy officer, Rob Copeland was elected as an ETUCE Vice-President. On behalf of UCU, Rob continues to participate in its democratic structures, principally, the ETUCE Committee, the Higher Education and Research Standing Committee (HERSC) and the ETUCE Bureau. The ETUCE Bureau met in June and the main outcomes were the adoption of an operational plan for 2025-28 and agreeing a response to the EU's new Union of Skills agenda (for a summary of the key decisions at the Bureau, click here).  

19. At the end of June, Education International (EI) published a new research report on higher education (written by Professor Howard Stevenson and colleagues at the University of Nottingham). The first part of the report deals with the current global crises in higher education, including what the authors term the 'Triple A' crises of Austerity, Authoritarianism and Automation. Despite these challenges, the report highlights union victories on a range of different issues, including UCU's successful campaign over the USS pension scheme (see this web article).  

20. The second part of the EI report looks at three case studies of where unions have sought to use the UNESCO/ILO complaint mechanisms to challenge their governments over non-compliance with the 1997 UNESCO recommendation on the status of higher education teaching personnel. One of the case studies is UCU's 2019 complaint over academic freedom (which is covered in pages 40-44 in the EI report).  

21. In terms of further education, Education International has recently conducted a survey of member organisations in technical & vocational education and training (TVET), and we look forward to the results being published. Within Europe, ETUCE has showcased UCU's own report on the green skills shortage in FE. 

22. ETUCE is currently engaged in several different EU-funded projects. These include projects on trade union renewal, artificial intelligence and working time. In June, their two-year project on health and safety (APRES COVID) ended with a final conference in Brussels. Although these are EU-funded projects, many of the outcomes are relevant to education unions in the UK, including UCU.