University students set for more disruption as lecturers vote to strike

The union is demanding a £2.5k pay increase for all staff, an end to race, gender and disability “pay injustice”, a framework to eliminate zero-hours and other casualised contracts and meaningful action to tackle unmanageable workloads.

It said vice-chancellors earned around £278,000 on average, almost ten times more than entry level academic or academic related professional staff.

Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, said: “It is scandalous that university vice-chancellors on overinflated salaries seem to think doing nothing on pay, casualisation and inequality is acceptable in a sector awash with money.

“We truly hope that disruption can be avoided, that is what staff and students alike all want. But this is entirely in the gift of employers who simply need to end their attacks on pensions, pay and working conditions and finally demonstrate they value their staff.’

Students back on campus after Covid now face weeks of strikes, starting before Christmas and possibly stretching into the new year.

It comes after similar disruption in the spring of 2018 and winter of 2019-20. Students starting their third year will have had hardly any uninterrupted teaching since their courses began after being forced to learn remotely during lockdown.

Universities voting to strike include Bristol, Durham, Cambridge, Birmingham, Edinburgh and York.

The University and College Union said the result reflected anger among members over cuts to the pension scheme

PETER BYRNE/PA

UCU said cuts to the Universities Superannuation Scheme(USS) pensions would reduce the guaranteed retirement income of a typical member by 35 per cent. This figure is disputed by universities which says the pension scheme is unsustainable without reform. The dispute about the scheme, with its deficit of around £15bn, has continued for several years, with negotiations continuing.

The union’s higher education committee will meet next Friday to decide whether and when to re-ballot some branches.

Universities UK said that of 50,443 ballot papers issued, 20,521 voted to take strike action, which represents less than 10 per cent of the 204,000 active members of the pension scheme.

A spokesman for Universities UK said: “While it is disappointing to see some UCU members think industrial action over pensions is justified, the union has failed to secure a mandate for industrial action in 31 of the 68 institutions where ballots took place on pensions, meaning fewer branches have reached the threshold than in previous ballots. Union members voting ‘yes’ to strike action at eligible branches account for less than 7 per cent of the scheme’s total active membership.

“These results suggest that support for industrial action is limited. In most places where the threshold was reached, it was the votes of those saying “no” to action that carried the numbers over the 50 per cent legal threshold.”

Students at University College London, the UK’s biggest university after the Open University, have said they will not support the strike.

The National Union of Students said, however, that it “stands in solidarity with staff who have voted for industrial action” because they faced “cruel and untenable conditions and remuneration”.

It added: “We don’t win a new vision for education by allowing senior managers to pit students and staff against one another.”

The Russell Group of universities suggested lecturers would enjoy far better benefits from the pension scheme than the average person. A spokesman said: “Industrial action will only penalise students who are enjoying the buzz of campus life after a challenging 18 months and will not change the fact that reform is needed to ensure the USS scheme is sustainable and affordable for staff and employers.”

UCEA, the universities’ employers association, said the “low turnouts” of the ballots were a “clear indication that the great majority of university union members understand the financial realities for their institution.”

The row over lecturer pensions comes down to a difference of opinion over the Universities Superannuation Scheme, known as the USS (Nicola Woolcock writes).

The trustees who run the USS believe contribution rates need to increase significantly from the rate of 30.7 per cent of salary (9.6 per cent for members, 21.1 per cent for employers) to remain sustainable.

They base this on a 2020 valuation of the scheme in which the USS deficit quadrupled to more than £14 billion. Because of this black hole they estimate the scheme will not have enough money to pay the future pensions of savers. This led the USS trustees, advised by the Pensions Regulator, to suggest that combined contributions may need to rise to 56.2 per cent.

The University College Union (UCU) argues these increases are not necessary and have not been properly justified.

The UCU points out that Universities UK (UUK), the employer representative, has already pushed through big changes and cuts to the guaranteed, defined benefit element of the scheme to prevent employers from having to pay significantly higher contributions.

The UUK cuts will drastically reduce the level of guaranteed retirement income provided to members of the USS, the UCU argues.

They will affect every active member of the USS, especially those nearer the start of their careers, it said.

The UCU claims changes to the scheme between 2011 and 2019 that have already taken effect will make a typical member £240,000 worse off over the course of their career and retirement.