This research formed the basis of the predecessor of USS, the Federated Superannuation System for Universities, which was approved by the Board of Education and membership became compulsory for new appointees post 1 October 1913.

The proposal for an independent company was approved by the JCC in November 1971, and endorsed by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals in December 1971.

Combined with extensive state funding of the higher education sector, this has been thought to make the risk of default very low.

[11] From its inception, USS was the main pension scheme for UK academics and senior administrative staff of universities and similar higher-education or research institutions.

[5] This predominance was lessened, however, when the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 created numerous 'new universities', whose employees (old and new) remained in the state-run Teachers' Pension Scheme.

[12] From 10 December 1999, any employee of a UK higher education institution became eligible to join USS if they wished.

[19] The USS Joint Negotiating Committee therefore made the following proposals, to be introduced after 1 April 2019:[20] UCU, whose objections to these proposals had been overruled, proceeded to ballot successfully for industrial action in an attempt to secure a more favourable settlement for members, leading to the 2018 USS pension dispute.

[30][34] In February 2020, Arundhati Roy had cancelled her Clark Lecture in English literature at the request of Cambridge UCU,[35] supplying it for publication in written form instead.

In an effort to conclude the 2020 valuation in accordance with the pensions regulator and other parties, employers offered a plan in which contributions would not increase, but the DB salary cap would be lowered to £40,000 (down from £60,000) and accrual would reduce from 1/75 to 1/85.

Such conditional indexation may be seen by the regulator as non-binding and thus would increase the solvency of the scheme by significantly lowering liabilities.

[40] Around 20% of university academics have opted out of the scheme, prompting the suggestion of lower tiers of membership to stem this flow.

[47] Debate continued with the publication of a working paper, one of whose authors was a UCU negotiator, that argued that UUK had underestimated the likely losses of cuts to the USS scheme implemented in April 2022.

[48][49] In February 2022, the following cuts were imposed to take effect from April 2022 (with the exception of indexation):[50][51] In November 2021, two academics, Dr Neil Davies and Dr Ewan McGaughey, commenced legal action in McGaughey and Davies v USS Ltd, crowd-funded to the tune of over £50,000 by around 1,500 USS members, against the USS directors, accusing the trustee directors of abuse of power towards scheme beneficiaries and seeking to halt proposed pension cuts and push divestment from fossil fuel companies.

[54][55] After the claimants won leave to the Court of Appeal in November 2022, USS announced that it would reverse the cuts to pensions it had previously approved.

[62] The scheme came under renewed pressure from 2015, via the 'USS: Step Up' campaign, which had noted investments in tobacco and fossil fuels.

In 2018, it was noted that pay for USS's chief executive rose from £484,000 in 2017 to £566,000 in 2018, while two staff members earned over £1m, and running costs stood at £125m per annum.

[65][66] In 2021, the scheme made a pledge to pursue an investment strategy that would be consistent with achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, but continued to attract criticism from Ethics for USS, which was concerned that the plans were too vague and timid.

[a] New additional investments included the three of the top ten US shale oil producers that USS didn't already hold,[b] plus three of the world's four biggest fracking companies.

[c] USS pursues a policy of "engagement" with fossil fuel companies as part of its responsible investment aims.

At each Shell annual general meeting between 2017 and 2021, USS has voted with the company against shareholder motions calling for emissions targets aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement.

[75] In February 2024, USS was criticised by the University and College Union (UCU) for its investment links to the state of Israel.

[76] Whilst USS shared calls for "a rapid end to the current violence in the Middle East", UCU claimed that the USS had not carried out a review of its investments, and instead stated that it would continue to "consider [its] legal duty to invest in the best financial interests of [...] members and beneficiaries".