Created on: 20 May 2025
Update after HE pay negotiating meeting on 15th May 2025: University employers fail to address pay and job security crisis
The joint trade unions entered this negotiation united in our aim to protect our members’ pay, jobs and working conditions.
We have set out to work collaboratively with UCEA to call on the government to address the crisis in the sector and to avoid the catastrophic redundancies in our universities.
UCEA’s pay offer of 1.4% would translate into a real terms pay cut of about 1.8% (relative to RPI in March 2025). As negotiators we will be recommending rejection to our respective executive committees.
Higher education is central to the economic success of our cities, regions and nations, yet it is falling drastically behind in terms of pay and conditions.
Low pay is a symptom of how little our work is valued by those running universities. Year on year pay erosion has not saved jobs, prevented the use of insecure contract types, exploitative workloads, or equality pay gaps.
Despite proclaiming their support for addressing inequities in the sector, UCEA have shown a lack of commitment to meaningfully address these issues.
The joint trade unions know that there is no trade-off between job security, pay and equity in work. These are all symptoms of a failure to properly value HE staff. We are committed to working together as part of the New JNCHES process and beyond to create a positive vision for the sector which properly values the role of staff and students in H.E
- A joint statement agreed by all five HE trade unions, 16 May 2025