Annual General Meeting 2026

The hybrid AGM 2026 is being held at 1pm – 2.30pm on Thursday 25th June 2026.

  • The in-person meeting is in the Malet Place Engineering 1.20. Please register in advance if you intend to come in person so we can accurately estimate for catering purposes as lunch will be provided.
  • If you are joining online, please register for a zoom link.

For the in-person meeting, food will be available from 12.30pm and the business of the meeting will start at 13.00. We are allowing 1.5 hours for this meeting because running polls in a hybrid meeting can take more time.

Agenda

  1. Chair’s Business 
  2. Draft minutes of previous AGM on 26 June 2025
  3. Matters Arising
  4. President’s Annual Report
  5. Accounts for the year ending 31 August 2025
  6. Subscriptions for 2026-27
  7. Committee Elections 2026-27 & Report of the Returning Officer 
  8. Invited Speakers
  9. Delegates’ Report from Congress 2026 (to be circulated)
  10. Election of Congress Delegates 2027
  11. Motions

Important items and papers (to be circulated in advance of the meeting)

After the AGM, at 5:00pm there will be a branch social. All members are invited to attend. Further details to follow.

Motions

Solidarity with LSBU UCU

UCL UCU notes 

  1. That alongside a redundancy programme, London South Bank University is seeking to make radical changes to staff terms and conditions of employment that
    1. force academics to prove they are REF-admissible or be forced into lesser “teaching and scholarship” contracts,
    2. these new contracts will have exceptionally high contact time (>600 hours a year),
    3. the contracts say they can be changed by the employer at will (derecognising UCU in practice), and
    4. new staff will be recruited to a wholly-owned subsidiary company and thereby excluded from the Teachers Pension Scheme.
  2. The branch won an overwhelming ballot for industrial action and is taking two days of strike action initially on 22 and 25 June.

UCL UCU resolves

  1. To send a message of support to the branch
  2. To publicise this dispute
  3. To make a donation of £5,000 to the branch hardship fund
  4. To encourage members to make donations.
Solidarity with Nottingham UCU

UCL UCU notes

  1. This May, some 2,700 staff at Nottingham University were sent “at risk” letters, with management saying they aimed to make 700 redundant this year and shut over 40 degree programmes. 
  2. The employer has been threatening wholesale cuts for the previous two years, but the immediate trigger was an £84m hole in the accounts arising from a campus closure.
  3. The branch won a ballot for industrial action, and has been taking a MAB with strike action from 1 June to 31 July.

UCL UCU resolves

  1. To send a message of support to the branch
  2. To publicise this dispute
  3. To make a donation of £10,000 to the branch hardship fund
  4. To encourage members to make donations.
Further solidarity with Goldsmiths UCU

UCL UCU notes

  1. Ongoing MAB and strike action at Goldsmiths University of London by the UCU branch against redundancies in the “Future Goldsmiths” programme.
  2. UCL UCU previously donated £10,000 to the branch hardship fund.
  3. The employer has now “locked out” MABbers by making 100% deductions, and in response the branch has called an indefinite strike of all members.

UCL UCU resolves

  1. To send a message of support to the branch.
  2. To publicise this dispute.
  3. To make a further donation of £5,000 to the branch hardship fund.
  4. To encourage members to make donations.
Solidarity with Prosecuted Academics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

UCL UCU is distressed to be informed that the Greek government is prosecuting three academics and officers of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) Faculty Union — the equivalent of a UCU local branch — on unprecedented and serious charges. They are accused, as trade unionists, of having participated in a student demonstration against a new regulatory framework governing AUTh dormitories. 

University dormitories in Greece remain public and free of charge, providing accommodation for the most financially vulnerable students on campus. The new regulatory framework severely restricts students’ rights and shifts repair costs onto these already financially constrained students. 

The prosecution of the President of the Union, Associate Professor Elias Kondilis, and Professors Dimitris Raptakis and Sotiris Sotiropoulos, officers of the Union, represents the first case in Greece in which academics have been prosecuted under the new disciplinary legal framework passed by the Greek Government last summer. Deeply troublingly, these academics are being prosecuted by the police branch responsible for tackling racist and extremist violence. 

UCL UCU recognises that this case is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader and ongoing pattern of disciplinary and antidemocratic policies being implemented in universities across Europe and beyond. Academics in both secondary and higher education are losing their jobs for condemning the genocide in Gaza, criticising the commercialisation of higher education, or refusing to participate in military research projects within their institutions. 

UCL UCU resolves to: 

  1. Express our solidarity with our sister union colleagues — Associate Professor Elias Kondilis, Professor Dimitris Raptakis, and Professor Sotiris Sotiropoulos. 
  2. Sign the open letter by organisations and academics around the world (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZkwjTlVF5XeA6TDxI0GpTEJRRogDBxKCNmK2ZZKCRVaA-kg/viewform) that demands the immediate cessation of all legal action against them, and urge our members to sign it as well individually.
  3. Condemn the use of legislation designed to counter racist and extremist violence as a tool to suppress legitimate trade union and democratic activity. 
  4. Write to the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to register our opposition to these prosecutions. 
  5. Affirm our commitment to defending academic freedom, the right to protest, and trade union rights in universities everywhere.
Choose thoughtful travel; reduce unnecessary flying

This Branch Notes

  1. It has been widely acknowledged by governments, universities and other institutions that we are in a global climate justice crisis.
  2.  The aviation sector contributes up to 4% to the earth’s anthropogenic warming
  3. Air travel is associated with inequities (in terms of affordability, accessibility, etc.) and displays an uneven distribution. In 2018, only around 11 % of the world’s population took a flight, and half of all passenger air travel emissions were attributed to the actions of 1 % of the world’s population
  4. Business travel comprises approximately 17 % of aviation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Academia contributes to this sector, with air travel comprising up to two-thirds of a university’s GHG emissions.
  5. Academic staff often perceive in person participation in international conferences and meetings as being linked directly with research excellence, international recognition and, thus, academic career success.
  6. UCL’s flying habits 2024-25 in numbers (University travel provider data only):
    – 27,134 flights* were taken by staff, totalling almost £23 million
    – 15,293,805 KG CO2, equivalent to the emissions produced by nearly 10,000 average households in a year! 
    – Nearly 44% of the flights were domestic or EU trips! 

This branch believes

●      Universities and their staff have a vital role in our society: not only do they serve as a role model; they influence a group of people who are still shaping norms and habits that will influence their behaviour for the rest of their life.

●      Universities are leading institutions in research on climate change and often have ambitions to decrease their carbon footprint and become more sustainable themselves. Universities and their staff should set an example in making conscious travel choices, and their policies should incentivise staff and students to adopt thoughtful travel and not fly unless absolutely necessary.

This Branch resolves to:

  1. Encourage members to choose thoughtful travel and to reduce unnecessary flying
  2. Circulate a message to branch members asking them to sign the Flight Free UCL pledge, to choose thoughtful travel, stop unnecessary flying and to choose virtual conferencing and lower-carbon transportation
  3. Demand that UCL establishes policies and procedures that incentivise staff to choose thoughtful travel and that discourage unnecessary staff flying.
  4. That UCL continues to expand staff access to technologies that facilitate cutting edge experiences in virtual meetings/conferencing
Education not militarization: UCL membership of the Defence Universities Alliance does not promote education, research, or academic freedom   

This Branch Notes 

  • That UCL Senior Management has applied to become one of the founding members of the UK Government Defence Universities Alliance (DUA)
  • The members of the DUA must commit to the charter core objectives of
    • ‘Advancing Defence Research’   e.g. “Members will commit to actively growing research and development activity and capacity in defence and national security relevant fields and technologies to support defence aims and objectives”.
    • Promoting Defence Careers e.g.  “Members will allow and support the attendance of defence sector firms and the Armed Forces at careers events to ensure a balanced representation of different industries and careers” 
    • Fostering Industry partnerships  e.g. “Members commit to work with and assist the wider Defence community where applicable”.
  • The decision to commit UCL to the DUA by UCL management obligates all UCL staff and students. This is not the same as individual academic staff at UCL choosing to work with the Military Industrial Complex, and is taking the University’s involvement in the war industry to the next level.  
  • UCL Senior Management took the decision to apply for the DUA without consultation and approval from UCL staff or students.   

This Branch believes:

  • The ‘defence sector’ is the military-industrial complex which profits from human and environmental devastation.
  • Universities as Public institutions have a civic duty to advance international peace and global sustainability, and serve the needs of society instead of those who profit from war.
  • The UK government’s broader “whole of society” approach to “defence” treats education not as a public good but as a tool for sustaining warfare and arms exports
  • UCL is an institution with an international student and staff body and should not be committing its staff and students to support for the British or any other Defence sector. 
  • UCL’ decision to join the DUA alongside its recently disclosed use of a Security firm owned by Former Military Officials to carry out surveillance, as well as its continued repression of student and staff support for Palestine, are symptomatic of a growing climate of militarization, securitization and surveillance of campus life. 

This Branch resolves to

  • Demand that UCL suspends its application to join the DUA 
  • Demand that UCL management should hold formal consultation with staff and students about UCL membership of the DUA 
  • Demand that UCL does not strengthen its ties with the military industry in any form, including participating in the DUA.
  • Share  members objections to UCL membership of the DUA  
Building a mass campaign for UKHE

UCL UCU notes

  1. The announcement by the House of Commons Education Select Committee on 12 May that 24 universities are likely to be declared insolvent and close in the next 12 months.
  2. Recent success of Dundee UCU by striking and taking their fight over jobs to the Scottish Parliament, but without a wider fightback, the employer is now trying to spend the Scottish Funding Council grant (now £62m) to pay for redundancies.
  3. The 2% pay offer, below the joint union claim of RPI+3%.
  4. The absence of the staff voice from the public debate regarding the value of Higher Education in the 21st Century, and the limited impact of central UCU campaigns thus far.
  5. The “Convention for Higher Education” initiative that successfully brought together a broad coalition of organisations, including UCU, the Campaign for the Public University and Council for the Defence of British Universities to campaign against the impact of marketisation and to lobby politicians in defence of UK HE.
  6. That UCU’s HE Sector Conference voted
    1. To build an urgent political campaign over the HE crisis with a lobby of Parliament as soon as possible and national demonstration in the Autumn. 
    2. To campaign to win an industrial action ballot on jobs by demanding employers commit to no compulsory redundancies (including “hidden redundancies”), with a campaign starting now, and a long ballot enabling action in Term 1 2026-27. 
    3. To rally the union around this strategy.

UCL UCU resolves

  1. To call on the Higher Education Committee to implement this ballot, which could be done via a ballot in each institution demanding a commitment to no compulsory redundancies for a year, and to pledge our support to winning such a ballot should it be launched.
  2. To support a new HE Convention campaign initiative to build a grassroots political campaign in defence of HE, commencing with an in-person one-day conference in London and Scotland,
    1. to host the London event,
    2. to elect a representative of the branch to join the organising committee, and 
    3. to support the practical organising of such a conference.