Sussex UCU, Brighton, UK

Update from 2025 UCU Congress 

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By Tom Cowin, outgoing Sussex UCU Vice President and member of the Anti-Casualisation Committee

We are writing to report back from the first-ever hybrid UCU Congress — the supreme policy-making body of our union, which determines national policy and strategic direction. This year’s Congress took place over the late May Bank Holiday weekend in Liverpool and online, alongside the Higher Education Sector Conference.

Read on for a summary of the motions we passed — including, as some of you may already have seen, our endorsement of a new strategy to fight back against the crisis in post-16 education.

Sussex and IDS branches sent three delegates to Congress. This year, the branches were represented by:

  • Michael Fadeyi, Sussex UCU Equalities Officer
  • Tom Cowin, outgoing Sussex UCU Vice President and member of the Anti-Casualisation Committee
  • Jackie Grant, Sussex UCU Pensions Officer and newly elected National Executive member — massive congratulations, Jackie!

Ian Lund represented our sibling branch from the Sussex International Study Centre.

Equalities

Delegates passed vital motions affirming our solidarity:

  • With Palestine, in the face of Israeli genocide and scholasticide
  • With our trans and non-binary siblings, following the recent UK Supreme Court decision
  • Against the Far Right, both internationally and in opposition to Reform UK

We also heard a moving speech from Arley Gill of CARICOM and passed a motion in support of his call for reparative justice.

Casualisation

We voted to begin gathering data on hidden or ‘invisible’ redundancies — the roles that vanish when fixed-term contracts aren’t renewed, or hours are cut, but which go unrecorded in redundancy figures.

This is particularly relevant to our Doctoral Tutors and research-only staff, and will be a central focus of the Anti-Casualisation Committee’s work this year.

Industrial Strategy

We sent our solidarity to all branches currently in dispute — including Dundee UCU, whose ongoing strike action continues to push back against employer intransigence.

Several motions were passed to empower national negotiators and the Higher Education Committee to open a dispute, should negotiations break down further, in response to:

  • The employer’s derisory 1.4% pay offer
  • Increasing job insecurity and mounting redundancies across the sector

Delegates spoke passionately about the need to collectivise our fights, ensuring no branch is left to struggle alone. We must act as one union to resist these escalating attacks.

While these motions do not prescribe the specific shape of a dispute, significantly, delegates also voted to explore the possibility of opening a dispute with the Secretary of State for Education — whose statutory authority underpins the failed funding model and marketised fee regime that:

  • Fuels the race to the bottom
  • Exploits international students
  • Now threatens our jobs

Sussex UCU contributed to the exploratory legal advice underpinning this strategy. We’re excited to work with other branches to develop this grassroots campaign targeting the structural failings that have brought us to this point.

Your new Executive will be bringing a motion on this to the branch very soon — stay tuned. But if you’re eager to get involved or just curious to find out more, please register for the planning event next Tuesday, 3 June, where work will begin in earnest.

Congress Papers & Voting Records

All UCU Congress 2025 papers and the official report are available at:
🔗 www.ucu.org.uk/Congress25

Sussex delegates voted in line with branch policy and priorities. As always, your delegates are happy to answer any questions and to share our full voting record on request.

A personal note from Tom

As I (Tom) step down and leave Sussex after several years on the Exec, I want to extend my deepest solidarity. I’m incredibly proud of the wins we’ve secured over the past few years — including:

  • DT back pay
  • The successful Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) in 2022
  • The return of deductions after the less successful 2023 MAB
  • And the new, best-in-class DT contract — work I’ll continue as part of the national Anti-Casualisation Committee this year

I’ll keep shouting about Sussex UCU at every opportunity.

Solidarity!
Tom Cowin

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