National pay negotiations involving the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) and the trade unions take place on an annual basis. As updated in May, following the final negotiating meeting of the 2026-27 JNCHES negotiations round on 13 May 2026, UCEA’s negotiating team wrote to the trade unions to confirm the final offer of 2% on all points on the pay spine from 1 August 2026.
Following UCEA’s offer, two of the five joint Higher Education trade unions, EIS and UNISON, have rejected the pay element of the offer, with GMB, UCU and Unite still consulting their members.
Once UCEA has heard from GMB, UCU and Unite, it will arrange meetings with the five trade unions under the dispute resolution procedure with the intention that the meetings will take place over August.
As a condition of participating in the national negotiations, we must follow the instructions from UCEA and at this stage, as the meetings are still in progress, UCEA has confirmed that no final decisions have been reached. As a consequence, it will not be possible to implement a pay uplift from 1 August 2026. The uplift will, however, be backdated to 1 August when implemented.
As soon as the dispute procedure has been concluded and UCEA confirm next steps, the University will provide a further update.