General election: 4 July 2024

Building a fair and sustainable post-school education system: priorities for the next government

UCU general election manifesto 2024 [429kb]

Education is transformative - both for individuals and for wider society. Learning broadens our horizons, while improving our wellbeing and our productivity. It is a long-term investment in our economy, it is vital to our employers, and it will shape the future for everyone.

After the damage caused by more than a decade of real-terms cuts and marketisation, this manifesto outlines a series of proposals for radical reform, underpinned by a set of key principles, to ensure that we have an education system that works for everyone.

UCU Scotland priorities for the new UK government

UCU Scotland general election manifesto 2024 [407kb]

Higher education is devolved and many of UCU Scotland's demands are directed to the Scottish government rather than to the incoming Westminster government that will be elected in this UK general election.

Members and branches are encouraged to contact candidates standing for the UK Parliament in Scottish constituencies to discuss and question them on their and their party's views on the higher education policies outlined in this manifesto.

Party manifestos and the political landscape

Ahead of the general election on Thursday 4 July 2024, UCU has looked at how the main UK-wide political parties' promises on education stack up. On this page, we have highlighted the main manifesto pledges that each of the parties are making in relation to the priorities outlined in UCU's own manifesto.

UCU Scotland has also produced a run down of the higher education commitments of the various Scottish parties.

On 19 June we held a Reclaim HE live event, featuring UCU general secretary Jo Grady, PA industrial correspondent Alan Jones, Goldsmiths UCU branch and former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell. We reflected upon UCU's demands for the next government and what UCU members can do to continue to push for the radical reform of education that we all need. You can watch a recording of the event below.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady also took part in a live event hosted by the CWU on the UK general election, with CWU general secretary Dave Ward and RMT general secretary Mick Lynch. You can watch a recording below.

Email your parliamentary candidates

Please take the time to write to your parliamentary candidates, asking them to commit to repairing the post-16 education sector and to support UCU's demands for the next government, by following the steps below:

Visit the 'Who Can I Vote For?' website and put in the postcode of your home address (or where you are registered to vote). Please take note that, due to recent changes to constituency boundaries you may now be in a different constituency from the 2019 general election.

Copy the email addresses of the parliamentary candidates that you wish to email, or save those details somewhere you can access again when needed.

Click here to access UCU's template email - the link should automatically generate an email in your email client such as Outlook. Edit the wording to include your name and address where you are registered to vote. Paste in the email address of the parliamentary candidate(s) from Step 2 and press send. If you are having problems using the link, you can download a plain text version of the template email here.

Make sure you can vote!

To vote in the UK general election you must:

• be registered to vote
• be 18 or over on the day of the election ('polling day')
• be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen
• be resident at an address in the UK or living abroad and registered as an overseas voter
• not be legally excluded from voting.

Make sure that your voice is heard by:

• registering to vote on the UK government website (deadline was Tuesday 18 June at 23:59)
• applying for a postal vote if you cannot cast your vote in person (deadline was Wednesday 19 June at 17:00)
• applying for a free voter ID document ('voter authority certificate') if you do not have a photo ID (deadline is Wednesday 26 June; note that this is not accepted in Northern Ireland).

UCU also encourages members to remind their students to register to vote. The 'Turn Up' campaign, led by the National Union of Students (NUS), is providing a suite of resources that you can point your students towards:

• voter registration information for students
• free CitizenCard as voter ID for students (note that the 'voter authority certificate' and CitizenCard are not accepted in Northern Ireland)
• UK general election FAQ for students.