Sally Hunt

General secretary Sally Hunt addressing the last annual Council of the AUT before its merger with Natfhe to form the UCU.

Sally Hunt is the General Secretary of the University and College Union (UCU). Prior to the UCU coming into existence on June 1, 2006, she was the last General Secretary of the Association of University Teachers (AUT), having held that post since 2002. The AUT merged with the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) to form the UCU.

As head of the AUT, she and Paul Mackney (Head of NATFHE), having lead industrial action in support of a pay rise for higher education staff exceeding 20%. The actions disrupted university exams and provision of marks across the UK. In the end members voted heavily in favour of accepting a rise of 13.1% phased over the three years, with the final year's figure subject to further increase in line with inflation.

Sally Hunt was elected as the first General-Secretary of UCU on the 9th of March 2007, narrowly beating main challenger Roger Kline (ex-NATFHE, and UCU Head of Equalities) by some 1,346 votes after the second preference votes of third candidate Peter Jones were allocated after Jones was eliminated in an inconclusive first round. The election turnout was 13.9% out of an electorate of just over 116,000 UCU Members.

The scruitineers report can be found at http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/j/7/ucu_gselectionresult07_1.pdf

Her election blog can be found at http://sallyhuntucu.blogspot.com

BBC report on the industrial action outcome