Extraordinary General Meeting – 30th April 2026

Amendments to Motions submitted to Congress / Higher Education Sector Conference:

Amendment 1: Proposed amendment to motion ED1 (Education Policy: Valuing post-16 education)

Add new final point: 
9. challenging militarism in our classrooms and institutions, including armed forces recruitment stalls on our campuses and any attempt to introduce conscription.

Add at end of motion
UCU resolves to link UCU’s ‘Wages not Weapons’ campaign with our educational demands, and to send a motion to this year’s TUC conference opposing any attempt to impose conscription

Amendment 2: Proposed amendment to HE11 (Conditional Indexation and USS, composite including UCL)

In Conference believes ‘b’, delete “investment and inflation” before “risks”.
In Conference believes ‘c’, delete all after “stable” and replace with
“fair, well-indexed, guaranteed and sustainable DB pensions for us and for future generations of staff, fair contributions, and no employer attacks on pensions.”

Replace Resolves ‘iv’ with 
“iv. That any surplus and lower FSC reported by the 2026 valuation should prioritise improving benefits.”
(60 new words)

Motions Submitted:

AMENDMENT 1 TO CONGRESS MOTION ED1:

Add new final point: 

9. challenging militarism in our classrooms and institutions, including armed forces recruitment stalls on our campuses and any attempt to introduce conscription.

Add at end of motion

UCU resolves to link UCU’s ‘Wages not Weapons’ campaign with our educational demands, and to send a motion to this year’s TUC conference opposing any attempt to impose conscription.

The revised motion would read (bold = new)

ED1 Education Policy: Valuing post-16 education 
National executive committee

Congress believes that valuing education and educators must be at the heart of the union’s industrial and political strategy.

Building on Congress 2025 motion 1, Congress calls on NEC to deepen its evidence-based policy work on:

1. charting the educational consequences of redundancies, casualisation, mergers, and privatisation in and of post-16 education.

2. developing a sustainable funding model to widen participation and ensure proper, stable resourcing across post-16 education.

3. monitoring the role of Ed Tech in colleges and universities.

4. challenging the detrimental effects of the hostile environment and UK TNE.

5. defending academic freedom, collegial governance and professional autonomy in response to political and managerial interference.

6. countering far right influence in our classrooms and institutions.

7. embedding climate justice in curricula and institutional practices.

8. building global education solidarity and exchange.

9. challenging militarism in our classrooms and institutions, including armed forces recruitment stalls on our campuses and any attempt to introduce conscription.

In response to these challenges, Congress calls on NEC to continue to organise an annual education policy conference, webinars and CPD on education-related issues. UCU resolves to link UCU’s ‘Wages not Weapons’ campaign with our educational demands, and to send a motion to this year’s TUC conference opposing any attempt to impose conscription.

AMENDMENT 2 TO HESC MOTION HE11

In Conference believes ‘b’, delete “investment and inflation” before “risks”.

In Conference believes ‘c’, delete all after “stable” and replace with

“fair, well-indexed, guaranteed and sustainable DB pensions for us and for future generations of staff, fair contributions, and no employer attacks on pensions.”

Replace Resolves ‘iv’ with 

“iv. That any surplus and lower FSC reported by the 2026 valuation should prioritise improving benefits.”

(60 new words)

Revised wording if passed:

HE11 Composite:  USS Conditional Indexation
University of Oxford, University College London, London regional committee, Southern regional HE committee, Royal Holloway University of London 

Conference notes:    

1. USS lost £1bn in the past year but reports a £multi-billion surplus based on gilts+ valuation; the 2026 valuation of USS is likely to report a surplus. 

2. The reduction in USS benefits since 2011, including the closure of the final salary scheme and increase in normal pension age. 

3. USS Limited and the Employers are promoting ‘Conditional Indexation’ as a future ‘reform’ of USS. The second Conditional Indexation (CI) report compares current DB scheme (rather than one improved by the surplus), and a hypothetical CI scheme, but fails to take proper account of political and regulatory pressures that could prevent indexation, and underestimates uncertainties involved in 30-year predictions.

 4. ‘Indexation’ is the method of uprating your accrued pension. Currently USS is increased annually by a ‘soft cap’ formula based on CPI. Conditional indexation means uprating pension according to whatever USS actuaries say is affordable in a given year. 

5. TPS employers see USS as a cheaper alternative – reducing the Employer Covenant makes USS even more attractive. 

Conference believes: 

a. Exploring CI was a response to the result of the 2020 valuation, itself a product of a poor valuation method.

b. Conditional Indexation transfers risks from employers to members, and reduces the Employer Covenant; and creates greater inequality between different categories of members.

c. Employers’ interest in ‘stability’ (low risk to them, low contributions and no industrial action), is different from ours – stable, fair, well-indexed, guaranteed and sustainable DB pensions for us and for future generations of staff, fair contributions, and no employer attacks on pensions. 

Conference resolves:

i. To actively oppose CI.

ii. To focus instead on improved governance, accrual and benefits to keep scheme sustainable – and stop hemorrhaging members’ money.

iii. To continue to work with USS to improve valuation methodologies.

iv. That any surplus and lower FSC reported by the 2026 valuation should prioritise improving benefits. 

MOTION 1: Solidarity with Goldsmiths UCU

UCL UCU notes 

  1. On Thursday 26 March, Goldsmiths management announced the third round of mass redundancies and restructuring in less than five years – titled ‘Future Goldsmiths’ – following the ‘Recovery Programme of 2021/22’ and the ‘Transformation Programme’ of 2023/24
  2. ‘Future Goldsmiths’ includes £20 million of staff cuts to be made by the end of next March, despite the Transformation Programme cutting staff to the tune of £16.1 million in recurrent savings
  3. On Friday 10 April, Goldsmiths UCU obtained a year-long mandate for industrial action following a successful postal ballot, with members voting to take strike action (81%) and action short of a strike to include a marking and assessment boycott (92%) on a 63% turnout
  4. Following a vote at a branch meeting on Monday 13 April, attended by over 100 members, GUCU voted to initiate a marking and assessment boycott (MAB)
  5. On Wednesday 15 April, notice of this industrial action was served to Goldsmiths management, and will commence from Monday 27 April – the first day of the summer term
  6. Goldsmiths management have not yet ruled out 100% pay deductions for GUCU members’ participation in a MAB

UCL UCU believes

  1. Redundancies across the Higher Education sector are a result of a broken funding model, as well as university senior management teams failure to run their institutions responsibly and effectively
  2. Goldsmiths management have financially mismanaged the institution, having spent over £16 million on lawyers and consultants since 2019, according to a recent FOI request
  3. Until the funding model for HE is replaced by public funding, job losses in our sector will only worsen

UCL UCU resolves

  1. To donate £10,000 to GUCU’s local Hardship Fund
  2. To advertise this dispute among members, and encourage members to make personal donations
  3. To build all forms of practical solidarity with Goldsmiths UCU and support political and industrial campaigns to improve the HE funding model

MOTION 2: Solidarity with Edinburgh University UCU

UCL UCU notes that Edinburgh UCU has announced a Marking and Assessment Boycott in their campaign against sweeping redundancies, and the university has threatened 100% deductions for Action Short of Strike. 

UCL UCU resolves to donate £10K to Edinburgh UCU’s Hardship Fund, and to support their campaign.

MOTION 3: Further Solidarity with London Metropolitan University UCU

UCL UCU notes that London Met UCU has taken a series of days of strike action and has now informed the employer of their intention to initiate a Marking and Assessment Boycott. 

UCL UCU has already voted to support their campaign and has donated £5K to their Hardship Fund to support their strike.

UCL UCU resolves to donate a further £5K to London Met UCU’s Hardship Fund

MOTION 4: Rent Controls Now! The housing crisis is a trade union issue

UCL UCU notes: 

  • Workers in Britain are facing a housing emergency.
  • Average UK rent is rising faster than wages and inflation, and UK renters already spend more of their income on rent than almost anywhere else in Europe. Published rental rates have risen 38% since 2020, according to RightMove.
  • Many landlords and letting agents have used the cost of living crisis as an excuse to push up rents, even though around 2 in 5 landlords do not have a mortgage. Two thirds of these mortgage-free landlords increased the price of new rental agreements during 2023, even though they were unaffected by rising interest rates.
  • The average Londoner spends between 38.5% and 57.0% of their income on rent.
  • There is no London borough where the cost of a 1 bedroom property is less than £1000 a month.
  • When trade unions win increases in pay, these are being absorbed by landlords through even greater increases in rent.
  • The Rent Act 1977 included a Fair Rent cap on private sector rents enforced by local authorities, but this was abolished by Margaret Thatcher in 1989
  • It is not just renters facing the housing crisis, service charges in ‘affordable’ and ‘shared ownership’ housing schemes are spiralling, with costs rising up to up £8,000 a year

UCL UCU believes: 

  • Renters are lacking urgently needed protection against future rent rises. 
  • To be successful, the call for measures like rent controls and more public housing must be a broad-based movement, and trade unionists must recognise the housing crisis as a workers’ issue.
  • The housing crisis cannot be solved by the private sector alone. We need massive investment in council housing built on public land, run democratically and free from profit.

UCL UCU Resolves:

  • To support the implementation of rent controls across England and Wales 
  • To affiliate to the London Renters Union as a branch for an annual cost of £100.
  • To support the London Renters Union Cut the Rent Campaign
  • To work with other branches in UCU to ensure that rent controls are actively supported by the union as a whole, including by taking motions to national conferences and writing to regional and national officials. 

MOTION 5: Motion in support of the Awami Action Committee (AAC) campaign against repression in Pakistan

This union notes:

  • The Awami Action Committee – Gilgit Baltistan (AAC-GB) has been fighting tirelessly for workers’ rights in Pakistan, including the securing of vital concessions on flour subsidies, electricity provision, healthcare, and education for communities living in extreme poverty.
  • Leading members of the AAC-GB were arrested and detained on March 10, including chairman Ehsan Ali, Nusrat Hussain, Mehboob Wali, Nafees Advocate and Mehar Ali.
  • These comrades have been groundlessly charged under anti-terror laws and accused of “inciting violence”, charges that seem to be politically motivated.
  • The judge at Ehsan Ali’s hearing on 26 March even acknowledged that attending an iftar dinner does not constitute a “simple crime”, let alone an act of terrorism.
  • Ehsan Ali is in poor health, having already contracted pneumonia while in custody. His life could be in danger if this situation continues.
  • It has been alleged that Amara Sattar, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Danyor, Gilgit Circle, was informed about Ehsan Ali’s critical health condition, requiring hospitalisation, and responded: “Leave it, there are orders from above … let him die.”
  • In 2025, Ehsan Ali was placed on Pakistan’s notorious “Fourth Schedule” – legislation originally designed for monitoring terrorists – severely restricting his freedom of movement.
  • That same year, Ehsan Ali and 14 other leading members of the AAC-GB spent three months in jail after being charged under anti-terror laws. They were released on bail on 14 August, which suggests the charges were baseless.
  • These previous arrests occurred as the AAC-GB planned a meeting to address the ownership of natural resources in Gilgit-Baltistan.
  • The political persecution of the AAC-GB by the Pakistan state is thus well-established and longstanding.

This branch believes:

  • These arrests represent a clear attack on democratic rights and trade union organising.
  • The criminalisation of peaceful political activity sets a dangerous precedent for workers’ movements globally.
  • International solidarity is essential to defend the right to organise against exploitation and oppression.
  • The struggle of workers in Gilgit-Baltistan against poverty and resource extraction is part of the broader international working-class movement.

This branch resolves to:

  1. Condemn the politically motivated arrests and demand the immediate and unconditional release of all detained AAC-GB leaders and activists.
  2. Write to the Pakistani High Commissioners and Ambassadors in the London  Pakistani embassy demanding the release of all arrested comrades and an end to state repression in Gilgit-Baltistan.
  3. Encourage members to participate in solidarity demonstrations and protests organised in support of the AAC-GB in front of Pakistani high commissions, embassies and consulates.
  4. Share information about this case through union/organisation communications, social media, and educational materials.
  5. Affiliate to future solidarity campaigns and maintain ongoing support for democratic movements in Pakistan.
  6. Monitor developments in this case and take further action as needed

“An injury to one is an injury to all”

MOTION 6: Motion against UCL’s surveillance of students and staff

This branch notes:

  • A joint investigation by Al Jazeera and Liberty Investigates has found that twelve British universities, including UCL, paid a total of £443,943 between Jan 2022 and March 2025 to security firm Horus to collect data on pro-Palestine students and staff.
  • Horus monitored social media feeds of student and staff and conducted secret counter-terror threat assessments that it submitted to universities
  • UCL has refused to respond to requests for comment by the investigators
  • UCL has a history of repression of the Palestine movement, including the most recent arrest of PhD student and UCU member Jamie Bradshaw, which this branch condemned
  • Jo Grady has stated it is ‘shameful’ that universities have ‘wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds spying on their own students’.

This branch believes:

  • Paying a security firm run by former military intelligence to surveil students and staff is a blatant infringement of UCL’s commitment to foster ‘a culture of trust and mutual accountability’
  • This is an outrageous misuse of funds that could’ve been used to support UCL’s services and academic community
  • UCL’s refusal to respond shows it has no interest in holding itself accountable to those affected 
  • This once again sets a dangerous precedent for how dissent and protest at UCL may be handled by university leadership and management

This branch resolves to:

  • Condemn UCL’s use of security firms to monitor student and staff protesters, whether for Palestine or other causes
  • Demand that UCL leadership respond to these findings and disclose exactly how much UCL has paid to Horus cumulatively
  • Demand that UCL is transparent about any current and future partnerships with security firms to monitor students and staff, and that UCU is consulted before any such partnerships proceed
  • Ensure UCL has ended all payment to Horus or other security firms and has stopped gathering data on students and staff exercising their freedom of speech to stand up against genocide

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/20/uk-universities-pay-to-spy-on-students-social-media-accounts

https://libertyinvestigates.org.uk/articles/british-universities-paid-security-firm-monitor-pro-palestine-students/