- Conference
- 2026 National Higher Education Conference
- Date
- 2 October 2025
- Decision
- Carried
This conference notes that universities and students’ unions rely heavily on casual student staff to deliver essential services in catering, bars, retail, libraries, events, advice centres, and administrative support.
For many students, these jobs provide not only much needed income but also valuable workplace experience and a stronger sense of connection to their campus community. Yet too often these roles are defined by low pay, zero-hour contracts, and a lack of access to basic rights such as sick pay, annual leave, and predictable scheduling.
A 2024 Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) survey found that more than half of undergraduates take on paid work alongside their studies, averaging nearly 15 hours a week, with their combined study and work commitments reaching nearly 48 hours per week.
UNISON research has consistently highlighted that young workers on casual contracts are disproportionately affected by low pay, insecurity, and barriers to union representation. Together, these factors raise serious concerns for students’ wellbeing, equality of opportunity, and academic attainment.
This conference believes that while student employment can bring genuine benefits, it must never come at the expense of health, wellbeing or study success.
Casual student staff are an important part of the higher education workforce and should be treated with the same dignity and fairness as all other workers. They should not be used as a cheap substitute for permanent professional services staff or as a mechanism to cut costs, as this undermines job security and standards across the sector.
Instead, decent terms and conditions for student staff strengthen institutions, support equality, and provide UNISON with an important opportunity to organise young members and tackle precarious work.
Working collectively with allies such as the National Union of Students (NUS) and the newly created UNISON Students’ Union Staff Network will ensure that campaigns for fair treatment are rooted in the experiences of those most directly affected.
This conference therefore instructs the Higher Education Service Group Executive to:
1)Work with branches to map the use of casual student staff in higher education professional services and students’ unions, and to support member recruitment and organising in these workplaces;
2)Promote existing and / or develop new guidance and training for branches to secure improvements to casual student staff terms and conditions including:
a)Payment at or above the Real Living Wage;
b)Guaranteed minimum hours and fair scheduling;
c)Full access to annual leave, sick pay, training and induction;
d)Access to union membership and representation;
e)Safeguards to ensure student roles supplement, rather than replace, permanent professional services staff.
3)Seek to obtain the support of the UNISON National Young Members’ Forum, the National Union of Students (NUS), and the UNISON Students’ Union Staff Network to campaign collectively for improved student staff terms and conditions;
4)Lobby nationally for sector-wide minimum standards on casual student employment in higher education, ensuring that work opportunities enhance, rather than undermine, the student experience.