- Conference
- 2026 National Higher Education Conference
- Date
- 6 October 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes:
1)The alarming rise in support for Reform and the fact that they now control several councils;
2)The small but not impossible prospect of them being the biggest party in the next UK general election and being able to form a government, if not on their own, in coalition;
3)The increasing mainstreaming of far-right ideas, for example, on migration, and trans rights;
4)The growing confidence of far-right groups to protest and to harass migrant communities, and progressive organisations including trade unions;
5)The influence, direct and indirect, of far-right movements and figures in the US and other countries on UK politics;
6)President Trump’s attacks on US universities’ progressive policies, international students, and political independence.
Conference believes:
a)A thriving Higher Education sector is crucial to challenging the dangerous ideas of the far-right;
b)Higher Education provides an example of the positive benefits of the free flow of ideas and people;
c)Higher Education should be run as a public service;
d)Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects are important but so are other subjects, including arts, humanities, social sciences, etc.
Conference calls on the Higher Education Service Group Executive to:
i)Organise a workshop for members, for example, with Hope Not Hate, on how to combat the far-right;
ii)Approach other HE trade unions to organise a campaign against the far-right narrative against international students and staff;
iii)Publicise UNISON’s support for international staff and students and opposition to far-right narratives around migration;
iv)Promote TUC training for reps on combating far-right ideas in trade unions and our communities.