Email sent to members on Wednesday 15th April 2026.
Dear all,
Your elected delegates for 2026 Congress and HE Sector Conference have started their preparations. Several key documents have been published that give us a sense of the issues to be debated and decided. We highlight below what we believe are the most impactful and/or contentious motions and rule change proposals. We also provide a guide on how you can approach your own appraisal of what is on the provisional agenda and let your elected delegates know your thoughts. Note that there is still the opportunity to nominate yourself as our fourth delegate. Should you wish to join our delegation, this will need to be voted on at our 21 April 2026 branch meeting.
The following decisions are, in our view, bound to have a substantial impact on the union (membership) and/or contentious. Where the branch has taken a position on an issue, for example the situation in Palestine or the Unite UCU dispute which were the topic of motions passed in previous general meetings, those positions are taken to apply to any motions on those issues.
Motion/rule change titles are shown in bold & accompanied by the unique code so you can easily search for them here. You can provide your input to the branch delegates, and views more generally on what is on the agenda at Congress and the HE Sector Conference, via this Google form.
- Several proposals relate to the way UCU should pursue industrial strategy.
a. Noting that the 50% for threshold on turnout is due to be overturned (August 2026) by the Employment Rights Act 2025 , and that 50% participation in voting does not always equate to 50% of members taking action, HE1 could demand a lot in UCU resourcing (both locally and nationally) for a potential summer 2026 ballot. August is also due to see unions being able to move from the necessity of Civica for postal balloting.
b. UoNUCU supported last year’s motion HE14 Composite: Trade union dispute with Secretary of State for Education over funding,. HE2 seeks to move UCU from working behind the scenes on the practical implications of this to opening a live dispute.
c. HE6 looks to address pay disparity for the most senior HE staff, including expanding the published pay spines.
- A series of Strategy and Finance Committee motions will be debated in private session (no non-member observers). SFC1-3 seek re-approval of auditors, the accounts and budget. SFC4 presents the union’s own preferred levels of subscriptions followed by SFC5-7 which look to change subscription bands and levels. Continuing previous motions, SFC8 looks to address the issues of access to UCU national Fighting Fund and rates members can claim. Member input from those with experience of interrogating accounts would be appreciated.
- Unions have never been inward looking and international solidarity often intersects with issues around academic freedom. SFC27 Academic freedom and freedom of speech require industrial strength specifically identifies pressure from Zionists but not any other groups.
- A proposal to apply similar freedom of information practices as public bodies to the union (R10 Rule Change: Transparency). As Gertjan Lucas noted last year when this was initially tabled, this proposal does not specify if the transparency duties to be applied to UCU are specific to information provision to members, nor whether they apply to national bodies, or all bodies of the union. The new duties this proposal creates may be resource intensive while also creating considerable discussion on the scope of any routine publication of information.
There are a couple of other motions we wish to highlight due to their importance and/or implications for the functioning of the union but would expect members to be supportive of.
- There are several proposals around respect and representation of academic related and professional services (ARPS, which corresponds to University of Nottingham’s use of APM). These include updating model branch officer roles (R14), respect across sectors of ARPS members in UCU (SFC13), and the need for clear career progression (HE15).
- EQ17 Reparative justice and the rise of anti-Black racism calls on UCU to be directly involved in campaigns for reparative justice and act against anti-black racism (note: UCU allows members to self-define for all equality groups).
Solidarity,