I'm London / East member of the UCU National Executive Committee, Higher Education division, 2024.

Who I am

Hi, my name is Cecilia Wee. I'm London/East member of the UCU National Executive Committee, Higher Education division, 2024-26.

Thank you to all comrades who voted for me, nominated me and supported me in the Spring 2024 NEC elections!!

I am an independent member of the NEC (ie not aligned with any UCU faction).

I advocate for free, lifelong post-16 education and am passionate about making UCU a more inclusive, accessible and stronger union that fights for all members, and wins. I stand for a post-16 education sector and union that fights for equalities, secure permanent contracts, safe workloads and teaching and learning environments where we and our students can do our best.

UCU has an urgent and significant role to play in holding education institutions to account and changing them, so that our members, colleagues and students can not only survive, but thrive. 

I am at the heart of the team reviving Royal College of Art UCU. Previously Royal College of Art was the most casualised Higher Education Institution in the UK (according to UCU’s Precarious Work report, 2016) - through our local industrial action 2021-22, we won a historic agreement banning use of zero hours contracts for core teaching and secured permanent contracts for 90+ colleagues, including myself.

An important part of my work is tackling how the multiple crises and instabilities of climate emergency, covid, Brexit, cost of living, culture wars and populism are impacting education workers in real and tangible ways. I have seen that every part of our working lives from mental health through to pay and progression have been affected, especially so for casualised, part-time, early career, migrant, LGBTQ+, disabled, women and Black/Global Majority members. 

I aim to use my mandate as NEC memebr to fight for a sustainable, equitable funding model for higher education, challenge the marketisation logic of redundancies, course closures, and surveillance and uphold academic freedom of expression. 

I aim to move towards anti-oppression, racial and disability justice, organising in tandem and in solidarity with national and international student movements, campaigning groups and other trade unions. 

I work towards increasing transparency within the union; streamlining bureaucratic processes; timely implementation of values-aligned policies; ensuring the fighting fund is healthy, and well placed to support members in disputes without delay, especially casualised members and those from marginalised backgrounds.

My experience: 

  • Associate Lecturer in the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art.

  • Co-Chair/Co-Equalities Officer of RCA UCU (2021-ongoing). 

  • Various zero hours, fixed-term and permanent academic roles in higher education over the last 15 years. 

  • Experienced caseworker, equalities activist, campaigns coordinator and strategist.

  • Member of UCU’s Black Members Standing Committee and Disabled Members Standing Committees, since 2022.

  • Moved motions on defending arts and humanities (HE30) and improving equalities data for casework, local and national disputes (HE35) at UCU Congress 2023. 

  • Co-organiser of Defend the Arts and Humanities campaign.

  • Outside HE, I’m an independent curator and organiser working with culture, community, health. 

  • Past governance roles include Chair, Live Art Development Agency; Council Member, Arts Council England London Area Council.

Endorsements

I first met the indomitable Cecilia Wee in 2021, when she was fiercely fighting hypercasualisation at RCA. Her courage, leadership and creativity in an incredibly bitter dispute were quite the first impression, and she has continued to impress me with her bravery and commitment to fighting precarity and all forms of inequality both within and outside UCU. Cecilia's would be an important voice on our NEC and I urge you to support her.

Dr Rhian Elinor Keyse, Branch Secretary, Birkbeck UCU, UCU NEC, Anti-Casualisation Committee and Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee.

I thoroughly endorse Cecilia Wee’s campaign to represent us on the UCU NEC. Cecilia was pivotal in the campaign to stop redundancies in an incredibly difficult art institution but at the same time brought to the fore the issue of equalities which in any campaign is easily pushed to the back, to assume that you need to sort out the now, the nitty gritty terms and conditions and think about equalities in the future. The now is the equalities. Cecilia listens to as well as enthuses rank-and-file campaigns that really are member-led. We need Cecilia at the heart of our UCU. Please vote for Cecilia.

Rahul Patel, Lecturer and Joint Branch Secretary, University of the Arts UCU

Dr. Cecilia Wee is a brilliant activist, and an unwavering force of positive change and resolute resistance as a pivotal figure within the RCA UCU. When our branch committee was decimated over a decade ago, Cecilia’s was one of those whose vital work re-established and rejuvenated the branch, and fought against commodification and corporatisation of education. During her time carrying this torch, we have achieved monumental gains including effectively ending casualisation and securing full employment rights for UCU represented staff at RCA. Her work in equalities has been exceptional. She is always one of the strongest, most active voices in our committee and in cross branch action, informing all we do here, leading from the frontline. Cecilia would be an asset to the NEC.

Nathan Francois, Co-Chair and Co-Equalities Officer, Royal College of Art UCU

I have had the pleasure of organising with Cecilia Wee for nearly a decade and have witnessed first hand her incredible work building union power at the RCA and defending the arts and humanities. Cecilia was crucial to rebuilding the RCA UCU branch after management fired the only union rep in 2016. She played a vital role in securing permanency for casualised staff, ridding the college of zero hour contracts and minimising casualisation at an institution that was previously the worst offender in this area. She has tirelessly supported branches under attack; speaking at and organising rallies and digital pickets across institutions as well as passing key motions at congress. If elected I have no doubt Cecilia will continue to fight for hard hitting and successful national and local action and support the work of rank and file members.

Dr Kevin Biderman, Critical and Historical Studies Lecturer at UAL, Acting Chair and Co-chair of RCA UCU (2019-2021), Anti-casualisation officer University of Brighton UCU (2021-2023).

I am delighted to endorse Cecilia Wee as a candidate for NEC. Cecilia is an extremely hardworking activist with equality at the centre of everything she does from building her branch at the Royal College of Art, to her inspiring and ground breaking work fighting casualisation at one of the worst offenders in the sector. She was also at the forefront of fighting redundancies at the Royal College of Art. She has a bank of experience locally at her branch but much father afield also with her activism around the vitally important Defend the Arts Campaign at a time when the arts and humanities are under direct attack across the sector. She is not afraid to fight when needed, she listens to members, believes in union democracy and will be an accountable voice on NEC at a time when our union needs to democratise. She leaves no one behind. Please give her your support.

Dr Aisling O'Beirn, Senior Lecturer and Anti-Casualisation Officer, Ulster University

I am very happy to endorse Cecilia Wee for a position on the UCU NEC - Cecilia is a hugely dedicated and experienced trade unionist who has led national and local campaigns to defend the Arts, end casualisation, and fight for equality in the work place. The Arts and Humanities are under threat like never before and we need experienced campaigners on the NEC to help us organise our work at the national level. Cecilia has also helped and supported our branch and I know has supported many others, so I'm sure she will be an absolute asset to the NEC.

Dr James Brackley, Lecturer, Sheffield University