Why I am standing for UCU Vice President

I am standing for election for UCU Vice President (HE) in February 2026.

I think Education in the UK is facing a novel and complex crisis. I refer to this as the triple threat, which arises from three sources:

• the financial crisis of the HE tuition fee funding system,
• the rise of generative AI tools purporting to replace human knowledge, and
• the growth of far-right political parties seeking to emulate Donald Trump.

These threats interact. The market encourages ‘teaching to the test’, AI encourages student cheating – and the far right attack the result, saying ‘why fund this charade?’

This cannot mean business as normal. We need to stand up for ourselves, our disciplines, and the very idea of publicly-funded and accountable post-16 Education and Research.

Although the crisis is particularly acute in Higher Education, it affects all sectors. The very idea of an informed and critically-educated democracy is under attack, as we can see from the USA.

UCU cannot afford to be reactive and defensive. Our members in Higher Education are facing massive redundancies. If we want to win the case for funding Education properly, we have to take these arguments on.

We need to set the public agenda. We need to make a positive argument for education to tackle global problems – and to empower humanity to control ‘AI’. And we need to stand up against racism and division.

That is why I am standing for election.

I am a trade unionist with a long track record of service to members. Over the last thirty years I have supported hundreds of members individually. Right now I am the UCL UCU branch secretary, a national negotiator, an NEC member and the London region secretary.

Perhaps more importantly, I know how to organise ordinary members to campaign on their own behalf.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I think I have the practical experience to organise the kind of response we need.

My starting point is ordinary members.

• We are the trade union of publicly-funded science and research workers in the UK.
• We also teach in Higher, Further, Adult and Prison Education.
• We have dedicated our lives to expanding human knowledge and sharing it with the next generation.

We will all need to play our part. We need to mount a grassroots defence of education and science that mobilises our members, our colleagues and our students.

In 2016-17, in response to the Government’s HE White Paper, I was the convenor of the Convention for Higher Education, a network that united existing campaigns and learned societies with UCU activists, and helped draft an Alternative White Paper, which was launched in Parliament. We lobbied MPs and Lords, and limited some of the worst excesses of what became the HE and Research Act.

Since Covid lockdown in 2020, I have helped organise the UCU Solidarity Movement, whose meetings have been an organising and meeting place for union members and reps across branches, meeting weekly for five years.

You can read my full election statement here. I am standing alongside other members of UCU Left in these elections.

On this blog you can read a bit more about me and how I believe UCU can do better. And if you like what I say, please do get involved in this campaign!

Sean Wallis (he/him) 2026