Membership

Why join UCU?

We are the main trade union and professional body for academic and academic-related staff in the UK.
We negotiate nationally on pay and working conditions, we advise the government on education policy, and we appoint directors to the USS pension scheme.
At a local level, we negotiate with OU management to improve working conditions and resolve collective issues.
We support individual members with our trained caseworkers, who can provide advice and represent members in formal hearings.
We offer activist, early career and continuing professional development training courses (opens in new window).

Our strength is in our numbers, join us and together we are stronger.

Who can join?

UCU is open to all:

academics
researchers (including postgraduate researchers)
academic-related and professional services staff
associate lecturers (ALs)
postgraduates employed to do teaching or related work.

We also represent staff at the OU’s subsidiaries: OU Worldwide, and the Open College of the Arts.

Eligibility is not dependent on type of contract: we represent you whether you are full- or part-time; permanent or fixed-term; salaried or paid hourly.

The recognised union for OU staff on a “Support Staff” contract is UNISON. This includes curriculum assistants, student recruitment advisors, and many other roles around the university. You can check your contract type on SuccessFactors, under View My Profile > Employment Information > Job Information > Employee Subgroup. UCU and UNISON work together on issues that affect staff across contract types.

We will represent all OCA staff regardless of contract type.

We have joint membership arrangements with some of the other trade unions, which means you can be in two unions at once for a reduced subscription fee. There is information about this on the UCU national website.

Member Benefits

Access to trusted financial advice from Quilter Financial Services
Excellent legal services and access to UCU's Law extra website for employment advice - the legal service is accessed via your local caseworker, should your case need legal advice.
Personal injury claims service
Expert advice on your pension rights - contact the branch office on ucu@open.ac.uk
Professional advice and support via the Education Support Partnership.
Journal of Further and Higher Education discounted subscription.

How do I join?

If you are new to UCU you can join online at www.ucu.org.uk/join.

If you are already a member of UCU and have moved your employment to the OU, you can update your membership in the MyUCU database (employment tab).

If you are already a member of UCU at a non-OU employer, and are continuing to work there, you can join the OU branch as your secondary branch for no extra cost. Visit the MyUCU database (employment tab, then scroll down) or email the branch.

Subscription rates (monthly amounts)

The monthly subscription rates based on your annual salary are as follows and are valid from 1st September 2024 to 31st August 2025. (updated 1 September 2024).

However, you can pay UCU membership from your pre-tax income. See this UCU explainer page on how UCU membership is around 67% deductible. The gov.uk page on job expenses includes forms for submitting a claim for a tax refund, or including the expenses within a self-assessment tax return.

Annual Salary	Monthly subs - Great Britain	Monthly subs - Northern Ireland
£60,000 and above	£34.98	£34.67
£40,000 - £59,999	£30.32	£30.05
£30,000 - £39,999	£25.60	£25.36
£22,000 - £29,999	£19.50	£19.32
£15,000 - £21,999	£11.98	£11.88
£5,000 - £14,999	£4.54	£4.50
below £5,000	£1.00	£0.99

For members in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), national subscription rates include a contribution, equivalent to 1% of the relevant subscription, to UCU's Political Fund. This is used to finance a variety of campaigning activities including parliamentary and similar lobbying. The Political Fund is used for "non-party political" activities. If you work in Northern Ireland the law requires that no political fund contribution is included unless you complete a contracting-in notice. If you decide not to contract-in your monthly subscription rate will be as shown in the table above.

Retired membership

You can change your membership type to be "retired" on the MyUCU website or you can complete the form below. We prefer members to tick the option to remain part of the OU branch of UCU, rather than to be part of the regional (Eastern and Home Counties) retired members branch.

Retired membership application form 2024-2025 (links to Word document, 81kb)