Regine Pilling (Capital City College Group Kingsway / Kings Cross)

Sociology Lecturer, A Level Politics, Capital City College

Election address

I'm an A Level teacher at CCC. We've all witnessed the devastating effects of austerity and marketisation on post-16 education. Staff face unbearable workloads, soaring stress, and falling pay. Student support has been decimated, despite the growing mental health crisis.  

Successive governments have treated FE as an afterthought, ignoring its vital social value. Adult Education has been gutted - with £1 billion less in funding than in 2010 (Learning and Work Institute). In HE, the fee-based funding model and lack of democratic governance have led to an unprecedented wave of redundancies, particularly in the arts. In Prisons, our colleagues work in unsafe, under-resourced conditions.  

None of this is inevitable - it's the product of a system that treats education as a business, and staff as costs to be cut - devaluing education. But we can change this.  

My union experience  

• Branch Secretary (2023 - ) 

• NEC rep (2022 - ) with experience on Legal Appeals Panel, ROCC, Equality and CEEC 

• London Regional Chair (2022-24) 

• National FE Pay Negotiator (2024 - ) 

• UCU delegate - TUC 2025 

As an experienced case worker and rep, I've helped build a member-led branch which takes collective action. We challenged casualisation, through striking, and won an agreement for HPL's to be made permanent after 3 years.  

We negotiated wellbeing & workload agreements and pay rises that prioritised lower paid staff. We are now taking further strike action in December and January.  

We continually challenge discrimination and fight to ensure EDI isn't tokenistic. We developed Themed Learning Weeks on Celebrating Multiculturalism and Immigration - to challenge racist narratives whipped up by Reform. And we've participated in every workplace day of action for Palestine.  

Why I'm standing 

If elected, I'll campaign to: 

1. End pay disparity in FE - through coordinated national action we can win national binding bargaining to raise up the whole sector.  

2. Rebuild Adult Education - a cornerstone of society that needs a louder, more visible national campaign. 

3. Defend HE - UCU must oppose the fee market funding system, defend academic freedom and support every branch facing redundancies.  

4. Ensure you the members are heard and your democratic decisions acted upon.  

5. Build a better society - we need books not bombs, climate justice and we must oppose Reform UK.  

6. Put equality, solidarity and liberation for all, at the heart of UCU activities. 

As trade unionists, we know our strength lies in collective action. By listening to members, acting on their democratic decisions, and standing together - we can win.   

UCU can be that powerful force for change - and I will work tirelessly to do so. 

I'm a member of UCU Left. Please vote for Sean Wallis for VP HE.