Preparing for the SHESC

(Taken from the recent University Worker Bulletin Sept 26)

Special Higher Education Sector Conference (SHESC)

The motion to requisition the SHESC called for UCU to organise the conference to discuss:

1. Holding a dispute with the Secretary of State (SoS) for Education over HE Funding

2. Supporting branches with e-balloting

A SHESC has the same constitutional function as the annual Higher Education Sector Conference (usually known as Congress). It is a space for delegates from every HE branch in the union to debate and vote on motions that become union policy. The Higher Education Committee (HEC) must abide by and implement the decisions passed at the conference.

24 branches of the union making a coordinated attempt to open up a democratic space to discuss and vote on a national industrial strategy shows the strength of feeling behind this initiative. Members want a proportionate industrial response to the current crisis, and they are taking matters into their own hands.

On 16 September, UCU national gave notice to branch officers that the SHESC will take place on 14 October. They gave branches 11 working days to pass motions at branch meetings to submit them to the SHESC. This is clearly not enough time for branches to call meetings and circulate and table motions. Nevertheless, branches are working against these constraints to submit motions.

At the time of publication, UCU national have not informed the wider membership that the SHESC is taking place. This is while the leadership has energised its comms strategy, bombarding members with videos at the TUC and Labour Party conference, and using subs for a video podcast that no one asked for. The recent grammatically dubious campaign launched by UCU (“Education. It’s Ours”) appears to mostly be a rebranding of the “Stop the Cuts” campaign launched back in January 2025.

At the same time, the President and Vice President (in flagrant disregard for the union’s democratic structures) have repeatedly indicated that decisions made at the SHESC will not be implemented. Instead of members debating and voting, they argue that only the Higher Education Committee can decide the union’s strategy.

Under these conditions, it’s hard not to be cynical about the national union and the barriers in the way of member-led democracy. But small as it might seem, 24 branches working together to force this conference into being already marks a massive shift in the union’s internal culture. The SHESC gives those branches an opportunity to lead a broader structure of feeling across the sector: to show members that we are not isolated, that other branches are facing the same crisis, and that there is a growing appetite to fight back together.

In the SHESC, we can hear from branches already fighting, learn from their experiences, and inspire one another with what is possible when members act collectively. We need to build the confidence that our union has industrial power locally and nationally — and that power means very little if we are unwilling to use it. Every branch that has fought redundancies will have witnessed moments when courage and inspiration have overcome fear and hesitation. We need to bring that same spirit to our national union.

We need to use the conference to bring many more branches into a fight for higher education, build a wider and deeper mandate for national industrial action, and give members the confidence to see themselves not as bystanders to the destruction of their profession, but as agents with the power to collectively change it.

The SHESC is our opportunity to show each other that we are up for the fight, and that a trade union is not a lobbying body. We have the numbers, the organisation, and the industrial power. Now we need to use it together!