Election practicalities

1. When does the UCU general secretary election start and finish?

The ballot opens on Thursday 25 January 2024 and closes on Friday 1 March 2024. However, this is a postal ballot administered by the independent election scrutineer Civica Election Services (CES), and the pre-paid envelopes in which you are invited to post your vote are likely to be second class, not first class. You should post your papers no later than Tuesday 27 February 2024 in order to ensure that they arrive in time.

More information is available on UCU’s elections page.

2. How do I vote?

You should receive your ballot pack by post at your preferred postal address. To manage your personal details on UCU, you can log into MyUCU or contact the UCU membership department. The ballot pack should contain information about the UCU elections and election addresses by each of the candidates, as well as a piece of paper to record your vote(s) on. The ballot pack should also include a pre-paid envelope so that you can return your vote(s) by post for free.

If you have misplaced the pre-paid envelope or the pre-paid envelope is missing from the ballot pack, you can put the ballot paper(s) into a blank envelope, write this address on the envelope—Civica Election Services, 33 Clarendon Road, London N8 0NW—then affix a stamp and post it back.

You must vote using numbers (1, 2, 3…) to indicate your preferences, not an ‘X’. See more below on ‘single transferable vote’. Vote for me as your first preference by putting a ‘1’ next to Jo Grady.

3. How does ‘single transferable vote’ (STV) work?

The ballot will operate on a ‘single transferable vote’ (STV) basis. This means that instead of voting for a single candidate, you are invited to rank each candidate in order of preference, putting a ‘1’ next to your preferred candidate, a ‘2’ next to your second-favourite candidate, and so on.

If, for example, there are 6 candidates (and 1 seat) in a particular contest, then put a ‘1’ next to your preferred candidate, a ‘2’ next to your second-favourite candidate, a ‘3’ next to your third-favourite candidate, and so on. You can put down a number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) for each of the 6 candidates, but note that you do not have to do this–you can also stop (e.g. 1, 2, 3 and stopping at 4) when you’ve voted for all the candidates you want to vote for.

Once the ballot has closed, the counting and allocation of votes will proceed in rounds. First, the first-preference votes for each candidate will be counted, and the candidate with the lowest number will be eliminated. The second-preference votes of people who put the eliminated candidate first will then be allocated to the other candidates. This process can continue until there is a winner, who will be the candidate with the highest total number of votes (first-preference, second-preference, etc…).

4. Who else should I vote for?

The UCU general secretary election coincides with the UCU national executive committee (NEC) election. Within the same postal ballot pack there will be information on both elections.

As general secretary I cannot achieve change on my own, and it is therefore critical that our union has an effective national executive committee (NEC) to lead its work between meetings of UCU’s annual Congress. I urge you to vote not just for me as general secretary, but also for David Hunter (City College Norwich) as UCU vice president (further education), and for the candidates listed on this page.

5. When will I receive my ballot pack and how can I order a replacement?

Ballot packs are dispatched by Civica Election Services on Thursday 25 January 2024 and should arrive by Monday 29 January 2024 at the latest. If you have not received your ballot pack, or if you have misplaced it, you can fill out the replacement ballot request form that is administered by UCU staff. Try not to leave ordering a replacement to the last minute, and the last safe date to post off your ballot is likely to be Tuesday 27 February 2024.

6. Why can’t I vote electronically/online?

Just like industrial action ballots, UK law mandates that trade union elections must be conducted by post. So it is not possible to vote in trade union elections electronically/online.

UK legislation also states that trade union elections must be supervised by a qualified independent scrutineer, in this case Civica Election Services (CES). CES is responsible for the production, posting, and processing of ballot papers. UCU cannot by law produce, post, or process ballot papers. It is not possible for UCU or CES to send out a ballot paper electronically for you to print out at home or at work.

It goes without saying that postal voting (for industrial action or trade union elections) poses serious environmental and accessibility issues. It may also be difficult for members living in areas where postal service is patchy due to Royal Mail understaffing.

Moreover, in 2022, the Conservative Party allowed its own members to vote online for their next leader (and thus UK’s prime minister), but has banned trade unions from doing this. UCU, alongside our sister unions in the Trades Union Congress (TUC), have been actively campaigning to repeal the UK’s anti-union legislation.

7. Who is eligible to vote?

There is one category of UCU member that is not eligible to vote in this election (or in industrial action ballots): those who are ‘student members’.

However, this category does not include all students: for example, if you are a postgraduate student who holds a contract of employment with your university (e.g. to do teaching), you should be eligible–by making sure that you become a Standard Free or Standard member. If you are a postgraduate student who are not in accompanying employment, you are still eligible–by making sure that you are a Postgraduate Researcher member.

But as a (very general) rule of thumb, if you do anything that constitutes paid work in your institution, you are eligible to vote!

If you have only just realised that you are eligible, you may need to change your membership status in UCU’s official database in order to receive your ballot papers. To do so, log into MyUCU or contact the UCU membership department.

For more information see sections 3 and 4 of the UCU Rulebook. Please check your eligibility, change your details if necessary, and do so as soon as possible in order to make sure you can use your vote!

8. How can I talk to/ask questions of the candidates and/or hear them debate each other?

All of the candidates have a presence on social media as well as campaign websites and contact email addresses. You can contact me via Grady4GS@gmail.com.

There will also be a series of hustings (in-person or online) organised nationally, or by UCU branches and regional committees. Click here for a list of hustings that I will be attending.

9. Why haven’t I received emails about the elections from UCU?

You may have missed UCU’s communications about the elections (for example, in ‘The Friday email’). The main source of publicity for the general secretary election comes in the form of four emails which each candidate is entitled to send to all members of UCU during the election period.

However, there are other reasons why you may not be receiving some or all of UCU’s emails:

you may in the past have chosen to unsubscribe from all emails from UCU. If you would like to change your decision, log into MyUCU or contact the UCU membership department
you may be registered as a ‘student member’ who is ineligible to vote in this election and therefore does not receive any candidate emails. If you are unsure of the category of membership you belong to and/or wish to change it, see the answer to question 7 above
your spam filter may be filtering out communications from UCU, so please check your spam/junk folder for missing emails!