- Conference
- 2026 National Higher Education Conference
- Date
- 6 October 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes:
1)The insultingly low pay increase in 2025/26 of 1.4% and the industrial action ballots organised by HE unions in pursuit of higher offers;
2)The beginning of the talks under the auspices of Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) on contract types, equalities pay gaps, workload, and spine pay review, suspended once the unions’ industrial action ballots commenced;
3)The continued failure of the Government to address the HE funding crisis which is giving HE employers an excuse, if they need one, to make below-inflation pay increases;
4)The failure of the new Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES) negotiating body to deliver adequate pay increases for members or to address issues such as pay spine reform or equalities pay gaps.
Conference believes our members need a pay rise in 2026-27 substantially above inflation.
Conference instructs the Higher Education Service Group Executive to seek to agree with other recognised trade unions that the joint pay claim should be based on the following:
a)A flat rate increase of £3k to salaries, or an increase to bring the minimum hourly rate of pay at universities to £15/hour, whichever is greater;
b)An increase to pay in full from August 2026 (no staggered increases with uplifts made during the latter stages of the academic year);
c)A commitment from UCEA to discuss and agree meaningful actions to eliminate gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps at universities, and to review and amend the pay spine;
d)Continued pressure on UCEA to accept that a standard 35-hour week across the sector is something their members can and should accept;
e)Convene meetings of the New JNHES Scottish Sub-Committee;
f)Agreement that all higher education institutions should immediately join 14,000 other employers and become accredited Foundation Living Wage employers (which would make the real living wage applicable to employees of third party contractors and subsidiaries);
g)Conference further instructs the HESGE to look into and discuss with other HE trade unions the need and prospects for a new pay negotiation mechanism as new JNCHES is not working.