The University of Cambridge has agreed to recognise the University and College Union (UCU) after a long-fought campaign in a move that it is hoped will boost the ability of staff to secure better working conditions.
UCU’s general secretary Jo Grady signed a recognition agreement on 10 March, with university leaders set to ratify it “imminently”, the union said.
Cambridge had been an outlier in UK higher education in not officially recognising the UK’s main academic union, which meant members had no formal right to be consulted and negotiate over pay and working conditions.
It had been argued that staff were democratically represented via the university’s internal committees, a tradition that had been fiercely defended by some at the institution.
