Congress motions

Motion

Motion title

Composite:Defend TPS in post-92 institutions

Session

2025-2026

Meeting link

HE Conference

Meeting date

28 May 2026

Status

Carried as amended

Motion

HE14

Motion text

Conference notes:
1. HE20/2025 carried as amended by HE20A1 and HE20A.2
2. That the latest valuation of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) has significantly increased employer contribution rates.
3. Several post-92 universities have already withdrawn from TPS or begun consultations on exiting the scheme, citing financial pressures to justify withdrawal are occurring alongside sector-wide restructuring and job losses.
4. The continued attacks on TPS in post-92 and in merged institutions, including in Northumbria, Solent and Greenwich, and the continued incentivising of opt-outs for TPS members
5. TPS is vital for providing a dignified retirement for members in post-92 HEIs.
6. Detrimental exit from TPS is being achieved by coercion or the use of subsidiary companies.
7. UCEA is lobbying government to allow exit from TPS.
8. Government will lose approximately £1 billion annual revenue if HEIs withdraw from TPS.

Conference believes that
a. Access to TPS must be retained or reinstated for all academic staff in post-92 HEIs as a fundamental component of pay and conditions
b. HEIs must employ academic staff directly.
c. Withdrawal from TPS represents a substantial cut to deferred pay, undermines recruitment and retention, and risks deepening inequalities across the sector
d. It is essential to ensure pension justice for casualised or low paid workers.
e. Staff with protected characteristics, including women, disabled workers and those with caring responsibilities, are likely to be disproportionately affected.
f. Exit from TPS at post-92 HEIs would lead to wider pension threats in the pre-92 and FE sectors.
g. Urgent action is required.
Conference resolves:
i. To engage immediately with UCEA and the government to retain TPS provision.
ii. To call a meeting of post-92 HEI branches to coordinate campaigning.
iii. UCU to launch a national campaign in protection of the right to access TPS in post-92 institutions. of post-92s to TPS. Congress notes that the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is increasingly under threat. Employers blame rising costs and use subsidiary companies to exclude staff from the scheme.
Congress believes that pensions are deferred pay, and calls on UCU to organise a campaign and industrial strategy, as we did for USS, to defend the TPS.
iv. Lobby government to address funding pressures used to justify pension cuts.
v. To devise a national strategy to prevent further exits and reverse those completed, potentially including industrial action.
vi. Legal advice to become available to all post-92 branches.
vii. Develop a national strategy to defend defined-benefit pensions across higher education.
viii. Comparison tables to become available to members to compare TPS, USS and inferior DC private schemes
ix. Local disputes on pension matters to be declared of UK wide importance.
x. Support branches facing TPS withdrawal consultations.

Proposing body

University of Westminster, Yorkshire and Humberside regional HE committee, Bournemouth University

Amended

Yes

Allocated to

Higher education committee (HEC)

Notes