Join UCU

We'd love to have you as a member. Find more about the who, why and how of membership here.

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

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 2025 to 31st August 2026. (updated 1 September 2025). Only include income from your UCU-represented work, i.e. do not include income from jobs outside tertiary education. 

There are a number of ways 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. 

For further details on subscription rates, visit our 'Pay the right amount' page. This contains information on: tax relief; part-time or hourly working; other income; parental, sabbatical, sick or unpaid leave; membership of multiple unions; student membership; retired, unemployed or casualised membership; the political fund; and the Education Support Partnership.

Annual SalaryMonthly subs - Great BritainMonthly subs - Northern Ireland
£60,000 and above£36.04£35.72
£40,000 - £59,999£31.10£30.83
£30,000 - £39,999£26.05£25.80
£22,000 - £29,999£18.88£18.71
£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.  You can either stay in our branch or transfer to a retired members' branch based on your home postcode. 

Retired membership application form 2025-2026 (links to Word document, 51kb)

 

 

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