HE Ballot - Vote YES!

Thousands of staff across the UK’s higher education institutions are being balloted for strike action after being offered an appalling real-terms pay cut by their employers.

The national ballot, covering all four nations, will ask members in 47 universities if they have had enough of poverty wages and will take their call for a decent pay rise to the streets.

The Unite members, along with colleagues from EIS, UCU and Unison, are being asked to take industrial action following a derisory 1.4 per cent pay offer for 2025/26 from UCEA, the employer’s body. 

This offer, from some of the biggest seats of learning across the country, is significantly below inflation and therefore represents a real-terms pay cut. To add insult to injury, the real terms pay cut was imposed by universities on 1 August.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members deserve far better than a real terms pay cut after over a decade of below-inflation pay rises and when they are faced with a cost of living crisis that is seeing everything but wages going up in price. 

“The employers should be ashamed of treating hard working staff in this way.”

Higher education and universities are in financial crisis because of its broken market-based funding model, but it is hard working staff and students are being made to pay the price.

With RPI inflation running at 4.6 per cent (Aug 2025), it is yet another massive real terms pay cut. Over a decade and a half of below inflation pay rises has led to HE wages falling by around 30 per cent in real terms since 2010.

Unite members work primarily in non-academic roles within the HE institutions that support students and researchers, and includes maintenance, libraries, facilities management and administrative roles.

Unite national officer for education Andy Murray said: “The employers’ offer fails to value our members and makes them bear the cost for the broken funding model in higher education.  Unite’s members have been left with no option to ballot for industrial action. Strike action will cripple the sector.”

The ballot opened last month on 20 October and runs until 1 December, though the last safe day for posting is Tuesday 25 November. If successful, industrial action could take place throughout the first half of 2026.

Some university staff have already started strike action after separate ballots, and workers at Imperial College continue to push for better pay.

Unite has produced a range of materials for members across higher education to help them get the message across that they will not stand for below inflation pay rises, and encourage colleagues to “Vote Yes!” in the ballot.

These materials, graphics and more can be found here.

By Keith Hatch