HE negotiations 2025-26

Updates

16 July 2025

UCU will soon be launching a consultative ballot over the full and final offer from Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). The elected representatives on UCU's higher education committee (HEC) is recommending that members vote to reject the offer, and vote yes to participating in industrial action.

UCU is holding an online meeting on UCEA's final offer, which will take place on Friday 25 July (14:00-15:30). This will be an opportunity to hear from the elected HE negotiators about the offer itself and ask any questions you may have. UCU is urging all HE members to register here to join the online Q&A (registration closes at 11:00 on Friday 25 July).

Questions will be taken in the briefing itself, and you can also submit questions in advance. All UCU higher education members are entitled to attend this meeting, and those who are from branches that are participating in the 2025/26 JNCHES negotiating round in particular are strongly encouraged to attend.

UCU will be in touch shortly with further details about the consultative ballot, including launch date and closing date.

10 July 2025

UCU's elected higher education officers wrote to branch officers (of branches involved in the 2025/26 higher education negotiation round), and UCU general secretary Jo Grady wrote to members on the next steps which you can read in full here.

The elected representatives of the higher education committee (HEC) met on Friday 4 July 2025 and voted to launch a member consultation on the full and final offer from Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). HEC is recommending that members vote to reject UCEA's offer, and vote in favour of undertaking industrial action. Please look out for further information on the consultation which will be sent out to eligible members shortly.

7 July 2025

Following the conclusion of dispute resolution meetings, the employers' representative Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) wrote to the five trade unions sharing this full and final offer (4 July 2025).

The elected representatives on UCU's higher education committee (HEC) met on Friday 4 July 2025 to consider the next steps. UCU will update branches and members involved in the 2025/26 higher education negotiation round imminently.

20 May 2025

The joint higher education trade unions (Unite, UNISON, UCU, GMB and EIS) met with the employers' representative, Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) in London for the third and final meeting of the 2025/26 pay and working conditions negotiations on 15 May 2025.

The five trade unions received the full and final offer from UCEA on 20 May. You can click here for a statement agreed by all five trade unions.

16 May 2025

The joint higher education trade unions (Unite, UNISON, UCU, GMB and EIS) have been meeting with the employers' representative, Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), to negotiate on the 2025/26 pay and working conditions claim.

The unions and UCEA last met in London on Thursday 15 May 2025; UCU staff are currently working through details and will provide an update to UCU branches and members involved in the 2025/26 negotiation round as soon as possible.

16 April 2025

JNCHES met in Glasgow for the second meeting of the pay round. Talks will continue on 15 May 2025.

31 March 2025

Click here for a list of UCU branches that are involved in the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES) for the 2025-26 UK-wide higher education negotiations on pay and working conditions.

The list of participating higher education institutions was shared by UCEA with the joint higher education trade unions ahead of the first negotiating meeting on 31 March 2025.

JNCHES met in London for the first meeting of the pay round. Talks will continue on 16 April 2025.

10 March 2025

The joint higher education trade unions' full claim for 2025-26 was sent to UCEA on 10 March 2025.

25 February 2025

The joint higher education trade unions' (Unite, UNISON, UCU, GMB and EIS) 'Heads of claim' for 2025-26 was sent to the employers' representatives Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) on 25 February 2025.

Meeting dates for 2025-26

The three negotiating meeting dates for the 2025-26 pay round are as follows:

• Monday 31 March 2025
• Wednesday 16 April 2025
• Thursday 15 May 2025.

Joint higher education unions heads of claim 2025-26

The heads of claim can also be downloaded here as a PDF.

We are seeking the restoration of our members' lost pay. Below inflation pay rises over the past decade have resulted in members' losing up to 30% of the value of their pay.

• We are calling on UCEA for:
  • an increase on all pay points of at least RPI (as at August 2025) + 3.5%, or a flat rate increase on each spine point of at least £2,500 (whichever is greater)
  • equivalent percentage rises to London Weighting and any other allowances
  • a new minimum pay rate of £15 an hour
  • all institutions to become Foundation Living Wage employers and for all pay points below the FLW to be deleted
  • a commitment to an urgent and comprehensive reform of the New JNCHES pay spine.
• To restore the offer from 2024-25 to develop joint agreements on workload, contract types/casualisation, pay spine reform, and tackling the gender, disability and ethnicity pay gaps using the previous jointly agreed terms of reference.

The recent increases in the national Living Wage have made the need for pay spine reform in the sector even more urgent and we are calling on UCEA to re-convene the previously agreed pay spine review working group at the earliest opportunity with a view to include recommendations that can be in place from August 2025.

Agree to take forward the other areas of joint work discussed as part of the 2024-25 pay negotiating round, included in the UCEA pay offer for 2024-25 and then withdrawn by UCEA; gender inequalities in pension provision, a Green New Deal and Just Transition, the migrant salary threshold/associated visa costs and on term time only contracts.

The unions also call on UCEA to undertake further joint work to avoid redundancies, course closures, and cuts to academic disciplines across the sector, and to lobby politically for a sustainable long term funding settlement for the sector.

The trade union claim will also call on UCEA to:

• recommend that institutions move all staff onto a 35-hour week, with no loss in pay, to be implemented at institutional level
• commit to the protection of national agreements relating to terms and conditions of employment including the Post-92 national contract and HE2000
• establish the Scottish sub-committee of New JNCHES as set out under the New JNCHES agreement
• call upon universities to reimburse all visa application and application-adjacent fees for migrant workers and ensure that the pay spine is appropriate for the new government-mandated pay thresholds for skilled worker visas.