The Friday email: 10 April 2026

England further education pay claim 2026-27

UCU has reached agreement with the other further education trade unions (GMB, NEU, Unite and Unison) on this year's joint further education trade unions' pay claim (2026/27) and it has been submitted to the employers' representative Association of Colleges (AoC). You can read the full pay claim here. 

The claim is built on the core demands in the New Deal for FE campaign.

• FE pay parity with schoolteachers' pay
• national workload agreements
• sector-level fully funded and binding national bargaining.

Talks will take place in June and July 2026. Please look out for updates as the talks progress.

News from universities across the UK

Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU): GCU UCU is running a ballot for industrial action over job cuts. The dispute is over management's plans announced to cut up to 100 posts through a targeted voluntary redundancy scheme in response to a predicted deficit of £10m.  The university is not currently in deficit. NUS Scotland also issued a statement of support with university staff across Scotland.

University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh UCU members have backed strike action in the coming year in a ballot over £140m cuts and up to 1,800 job losses. On a turnout of 55%, 88% voted to back strike action and 94% voted to back action short of strike which could include working to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and the possibility of a marking and assessment boycott.

London Metropolitan University: the dispute over job cuts and redundancies continues at London Met. Strike action will take place on 15-16, 21-23, 27-29 April, and action short of strike (ASOS) commenced on 6 April.

Sheffield Hallam University (SHU): SHU UCU is running a ballot for strike action in a fight to protect their pensions. Management's rationale for attacking jobs, terms, learning and working conditions is a supposed need to make £26.6m of cuts next year. Only teaching staff with significant responsibility for research would be left in TPS.

Ten principles for AI and governing AI in the HE sector

We have launched ten principles for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in post-16 education. These principles set out how the introduction of AI technologies in education and research must be subject to consultation and agreement through recognised collective bargaining processes prior to implementation, due to their potential impact on working conditions, academic practice and staff roles.

In addition, members may be interested in this new publication from the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Governing Artificial intelligence in the Higher Education Sector, which contains a chapter on AI and trade union rights by UCU head of policy Rob Copeland.

Arts and Minds Coalition open letter

UCU is a member of the Arts and Minds Coalition which is calling for creative subjects to be reinstated as a crucial part of the curriculum.

Please take a moment to sign our open letter to Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education and Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to maintain momentum on policy asks and support sector mobilisation.

UCU survey of members' experience of racism

UCU is committed to putting equality at the heart of everything we do. We have a proud history of challenging racism across further and higher education, and of reflecting critically on our own structures and practices to ensure that our anti-racist work is meaningful, effective and accountable.

Working alongside the national executive committee (NEC) and the Black members' standing committee (BMSC), we have developed a survey to better understand members' experiences of UCU and of their working lives. You can complete the survey here. The survey will close on Thursday 30 April 2026 at 17:00. All responses will be confidential, and participation is entirely voluntary.

Certification officer complaint: McGaughey & Blake v UCU

In February 2025, UCU was notified that two candidates who ran in the 2024 general secretary election, Vicky Blake and Ewan McGaughey, had lodged a complaint about what they claimed were multiple and sustained breaches of union rules during the election.

The complaint was made to the certification officer (CO), an independent officer appointed by the government to ensure that trade unions carry out their statutory duties and comply with the law. The CO has dismissed six out of the seven complaints in their entirety and upheld only one part of the other on a technicality. The CO has made it clear that none of the complaints had any impact whatsoever on the general secretary election result and has requested no sanction or further recommendations for the union.

You can read the full CO report here, and UCU have also provided a five-page summary of the main points here.

Together march in London, Saturday 28 March

As the far right stir up hatred in communities up and down the country, we need to show where we stand. UCU stands for hope not despair, unity not division, and a country where everyone belongs.

That is why UCU joined thousands of people and organisations marching through central London on Saturday 28 March 2026, turning the values we all share into visible action. You can see photographs from the UCU bloc here.