The Friday email: 6 March 2026

Prison education: new reports presented at UK Parliament

UCU presented two new important reports on prison education at UK Parliament on Tuesday 3 March:

• The career experiences of Black prison educators
• The mental health and wellbeing of prison educators working in the UK

The first is pilot study by NIANRO, based on interviews with 24 Black prison educators (including some who had left the profession). It explores why they enter the role, their career trajectories, and how race and racism affect their experiences. The second is a study by Education Support, based on a survey of 128 prison educators and four focus groups. It shows that prison educators face significant mental health and wellbeing challenges linked to their working conditions.

You can also watch UCU's short film accompanying the Black prison educators report.

FE updates: Windsor Forest Colleges Group strike, workload training

UCU members at Windsor Forest Colleges Group will be taking two days of strike action on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 March in their ongoing dispute regarding pay, as part of the New Deal for FE campaign. Despite attempts by UCU to try to resolve the dispute, management are refusing to increase the 1.7% + £500 pay offer.

On 27 February UCU held a training session as part of the 'Workloads Are Not Working in FE' campaign, on how to challenge unsafe workloads in further education effectively. A big thank you to the dozens of UCU reps who attended and we will be developing a week of action that FE branches and members can get involved in.

News from universities across the UK

University of Essex: Essex UCU members were on picket lines this week in a fight to save Southend Campus and hundreds of jobs. You can read further details here. Please sign this petition to save Essex and consider donating to Essex UCU's hardship fund. You can also share UCU's short film (on YouTube, BlueSky or Facebook), in which Essex staff and students explain why people are coming together to defend education and their community.

Swansea University: Swansea UCU will begin balloting on industrial action over proposed redundancies that have placed over 200 staff at risk. Management has implemented a £30m savings plan with over £25m in staff savings. UCU is seeking a commitment to no compulsory redundancies which to date the university has refused to give.

Heriot-Watt University: As part of a wider dispute, Heriot-Watt UCU have launched a campaign over the threat of job losses (one third of its staff in the department) and closure of German and Chinese undergraduate programmes in the department of Languages and Intercultural Studies (LINCS).  Please sign their petition here and find out more about the campaign here. The joint Heriot-Watt unions have also been gathering support for Scholar, a national digital learning service for Scotland, which is threatened with closure. Please add your voice here.

University of South Wales: USW says it is cutting a further 200 jobs in response to problems facing the higher education sector. USW UCU chair Estelle Hart told the BBC that the announcement 'caused considerable shock and worry for staff at USW who have been given a matter of weeks to make life-changing decisions or find themselves at risk of redundancy'.  

Northumbria University: Northumbria UCU members have confirmed that they will take another 10 days of strike action (16-17 March, 25-27 March, 20-24 April), as a dispute over a 'pension grab' continues. Northumbria UCU chair Adam Hansen told The Chronicle that the strike was a 'last resort' and that union members 'are saying they want to carry on the action, reluctantly but necessarily'.

Glasgow Caledonian University: GCU is reportedly facing a deficit of over £10m in the next financial year and is introducing a targeted voluntary redundancy scheme to cut approximately 100 posts. You can click here to see statements from GCU UCU branch president Karen Lorimer and UCU general secretary Jo Grady.

You can click here for developments at institutions across the UK, and click here to see recent wins and resolutions.

Results for UCU elections 2026

The results of ballots to elect vice-president from the further education sector (becoming president 2028-29), by-election vice-president from the higher education sector (becoming president in 2029-2030) and national executive committee members, have been published on UCU's website.

Introduction to UCU Congress briefing

If you are considering attending UCU Congress for the first time and would like to know more about UCU's supreme policy-making body, click here to register for a briefing which will take place on Monday 9 March (12:30-13:30). Registration deadline is Monday 9 March at 11:30.

Webinar on collective redundancies

On Wednesday 11 March (17:00-18:00), UCU will hold a webinar with Helena Ifeka, a barrister at Cloisters Chambers who specialises in employment law. The webinar will focus on collective redundancies, and you can register here.

Helena Ifeka will use a hypothetical example to work through both good practice and common issues, and afterwards she will take questions. Helena Ifeka has asked that UCU members send questions or pressing concerns in advance to Hamish Park. Members are asked to send questions no later than Monday 9 March at 09:00.

UCU anti-casualisation webinar: inequalities and unpaid work in academia

This webinar will take place on Wednesday 25 March (12:00). Two University of Edinburgh researchers will present findings from their recent project, In Their Own Time. The project explores the systemic expectations of unpaid labour that sustain ableist and gendered cultures within academia. The experiences of eight casualised workers are explored in illustrated narratives. Aimed at employers and funders, the initiative was supported by UCU's anti-casualisation committee (ACC). We encourage all members to attend and you can register here.

TransActual Workers Survey

TransActual Workers Survey wants to hear from trans workers and allies about any changes that your employer has made to policies and practices regarding trans inclusion since the Supreme Court ruling.

The aim of the survey is to show the impact of last year's Supreme Court judgment, the EHRC interim guidance, and the recent High Court judgment concerning Workplace Regulations 1992. Please click here to complete the TransActual Workers survey.

UCU equality research conference

The UCU equality research conference will take place on Friday 15 May in a hybrid format (in-person at University of Manchester or Zoom). Call for papers is out with a final deadline of Monday 16 March, 16:00. If you conduct activist or academic research relating to equality please submit a proposal to present. The proposal can be for research at any stage of the process. The registration to attend the conference in person or online is also now open.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2026 video

UCU commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January every year. This year Professor Eve Rosenhaft from University of Liverpool delivered a talk on the genocide of the Romani people in Europe during the Second World War and you can see a video of the talk here.

Rally for migrants' rights

On Wednesday 11 March, over 500 campaigners will be in UK Parliament to challenge the government's proposed 'earned settlement' changes. The government's proposals would make settlement harder, longer and more conditional--deepening precarity for millions of migrants, workers and families. There will be a public rally in Parliament Square (15:00-16:00) to ensure migrant voices and collective resistance are visible beyond the walls of Westminster.