Postgraduate students who do some teaching or carry out other paid academic work are entitled to free membership of UCU, for up to 4 years. This confers full employment support from the union, and the right to vote in union elections and industrial action ballots. For more details see
https://www.ucu.org.uk/free-faqs

You can join online or by phone – see https://www.ucu.org.uk/join  (in the online form, choose ‘Standard full membership’ to activate the free membership offer option, and then tick the ‘yes’ box for ‘Eligible for Free Membership’).

There is also a free student membership category available for any student considering an academic career, but this doesn’t give employment support or voting rights. This membership is suitable for students who don’t carry out paid academic work for the university.

We are actively campaigning (in conjunction with Leeds University Union) for improvements to conditions and contracts for postgraduate students who teach and undertake other paid work at this university. If you have concerns regarding PGR pay and working conditions, or if you’d like to get involved with this work, please contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

If you can display a poster encouraging postgraduate students to join UCU, you can download a selection from the UCU website or pick them up from the UCU office (email ucu@leeds.ac.uk to arrange to collect some).

We look forward to welcoming more postgraduate students to the Leeds UCU branch. You are the future of universities!