UK trade union for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and professional services staff in further education, higher education, prison education, and adult and community education.
University and College Union (UCU)
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Up to half of FE lecturers walk away within three years.
Not because they stopped caring but because the workload broke them.
Chronic overwork. Escalating stress. No support.
This is a workforce crisis.
How much of your week is spent actually teaching?
Turns out it’s the smallest part of the job for our further education members.
The rest? Admin. Paperwork. Chasing.
Reporting and everything in between.
Teaching is what they trained for. It’s what students need.
Workload’s not working.
UCU President Maria Chondriagianni opened Congress 2026 with a rallying call to defend post-16 education:
“Time is not on our side. We don’t have two or three years to wait.”
“Trans women are women” - our members.
Welcome to UCU Congress 2026.
Three days. Hundreds of delegates.
One union setting its own agenda.
See you in the morning, Harrogate. 🌹
#UCU26
Equality is not conditional. Dignity at work is not negotiable.
The EHRC Code of Practice has been published. UCU is examining it urgently.
This is a significant and unsettling moment and we will not leave branches to navigate it alone.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1451...
Jo Grady on LBC:
“Wages have stagnated. Pensions stripped. Workers fired and rehired. Solent University is using current legislation to force staff into a sham subsidiary company with the express intent of taking their pension away.This is happening in workplaces all over the country.”
Had the honour & opportunity to meet @zackpolanski.bsky.social at #UCUCongress. We briefly chatted about Makersfield, the importance of trade unions, and my journey in @ducu.bsky.social as a professional services member. He was friendly, he listened, he asked probing questions.
Was a pleasure.
Nottingham VC Jane Norman called plans to cut 700+ jobs and axe 40+ degree programmes “exciting.” Staff disagree.
Today a marking boycott begins. 62 days of strikes follow from June.
We will keep fighting.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1450...
