What is the Teaching & Research job family title consultation at Imperial College UCU?

Imperial College UCU's page records that the University Management Board (UMB) asked the branch to suggest new titles for both the research and teaching job families at Imperial. UCU submitted a full proposal, but the titles UMB subsequently put forward adopt very few of the union's suggestions. Those management titles are set to form the basis of negotiations with the Joint Trade Unions in September 2026. The consultation is therefore about job titles, not pay or grading, and it is still at the negotiation stage rather than settled.

What the consultation covers

The consultation concerns two job families:

• Research job family — the career track for staff whose role is primarily research.
• Teaching job family — the career track for staff whose role is primarily teaching.

The page frames this as a title consultation, meaning the discussion is about what these roles are called, not about the underlying pay, grade, or contract structure. UCU's involvement began when UMB asked the branch to propose new titles for both families.

What UCU proposed and what management put forward

According to the page, UCU sent UMB a full written proposal setting out suggested changes to the titles. UMB then responded with its own set of titles for the two job families.

The key point recorded on the page is the gap between the two:

The page does not reproduce the full text of either list in the excerpt available, so the specific title wording on each side is not set out here. What is clear is that UCU's suggestions were largely not taken up in the management proposal.

Why the September 2026 negotiation matters

The management titles are not final. They are described as the basis for negotiation with the Joint Trade Unions in September 2026, which means the union side still has a formal opportunity to argue for changes before any titles are agreed.

If you are a member of staff in either job family, the practical implications are:

• Your current title is not yet changed by this consultation.
• The negotiation outcome will determine whether UCU's suggestions are incorporated.
• The Joint Trade Unions — not UCU alone — will be at the table in September 2026.

Where to follow the detail

The page sits under the branch's Uncategorised section and is dated 6 August 2026. It links to the full UCU titles proposal submitted to UMB, which is the primary document if you want to see the exact wording UCU recommended. The branch's pay negotiations section is a separate area of the site, so do not expect the title consultation to be covered there.

For members wanting to act on this, the useful step is to read the linked UCU proposal and compare it against the management titles once those are published in full, then raise any concerns through the branch ahead of the September 2026 Joint Trade Union negotiations.