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Academics at 60 universities across the UK are set to go on strike tomorrow over pensions, pay and working conditions in the latest episode of a long-running dispute between management and staff.
The strikes will affect around 1m students on eight consecutive working days from tomorrow until 4 December.
Read more: Royal Mail shares bleed red as strike vote puts profit in doubt
The strikes, called by the University and College Union (UCU), centre on changes to university lecturers’ pensions which mean they pay more in but receive less when they retire. They follow similar action last year.
“The latest round of increased contributions backed by universities represents another pay cut for staff,” UCU general secretary Jo Grady said last month.
UCU also wants wage increases for staff, arguing that pay has been cut by 17 per cent in real terms since 2009.
Universities UK, the group which represents employers on pensions, has said that the pension scheme is more generous than many others and says employers are increasing their contributions faster than staff.
Universities have also argued that intense competition and the freezing of tuition fees over the last three years mean it is difficult to raise wages.
The University & College Employers Association’s (UCEA) last offer to lecturers was of an above-inflation pay rise and other measures that it said would mean a 4.8 per cent pay rise for two-thirds of academics.
But UCU has rejected these offers. Grady said: “Universities can be in no doubt about the strength of feeling on these issues and we will be consulting branches whose desire to strike was frustrated by anti-union laws about reballoting.”
Universities have pledged to do all they can to limit the disruption to students, including some saying they will not set exams on lectures that were cancelled due to strikes. UCU has encouraged its members not to reschedule lectures, however.
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