Striving to Defend the Academic Profession: The University and College Union in English research-intensive universities

The purpose of the paper is to understand why academics’ main association and trade union in England (University and College Union－UCU) is not stronger in its representation capacity, deepening knowledge regarding its role in the wider higher education sector. UCU operates in an adversarial context, claiming itself to be academics’ main voice. However, UCU, as an association/union of academics, does not have a monopoly on representation, nor is the representation that it offers consistently strong. Applying a “Multiple Logics” perspective to this under-investigated topic within higher education, findings suggest that UCU is hampered by: 1) an increasingly heterogeneous academic workforce, resulting in contrasting interests; 2) an overriding cascade of managerialism in all ranks; 3) a widespread soloist mentality among academics; 4) an understanding of one’s profession as in contrast with the idea of mobilization; 5) internal ideological conflicts among UCU activists.