60 UK universities shut down as lecturers, support staff, embark on strike (SEE LIST OF AFFECTED VARSITIES)

Lecturers and support staff in 60 universities in the United Kingdom have commenced an eight-day industrial action.

The striking workers, under the umbrella of the University and Colleges Union (UCU), say they have reached “breaking point” over a number of issues, including workloads, real-terms cuts in pay, a 15% gender pay gap and changes to pensions for staff in the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which the union says will leave members paying in more and receiving less in retirement.

The union members, numbering up to 43,600, also say they will begin other forms of industrial action when they return to work, including working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost during the strikes.

This latest action follows strikes in February and March last year, meaning some students are being affected for the second time.

According to UCU general secretary Jo Grady, the higher education sector had “made a lot of money over the past 10 years” but that spending on staff in that period had gone down and that there had been “an attack on working conditions in the sector”.

On pensions, the UCU is angry that members are now having to pay 9.6% in pension contributions, up from 8% and wants universities to pay the full increase instead.

The union estimates that, overall, changes to the pension could leave lecturers about £240,000 worse off in retirement, rising to £730,000 for professors.

But the University and Colleges Employers Association and Universities UK say employers have increased their pension contributions from 18% to 21.1% of salary, paying in an extra £250m each year.

The employers say even increasing their contributions to 22.7% of salary would cost them £373m a year.

They have warned that in order to meet the union’s current demands, employers “would have to divert unsustainable amounts of money from other budgets with potential consequences including for jobs, student support, course closures and larger class sizes”.

BBC reports that in total, 43 universities are taking industrial action over both pensions and pay and conditions; while 14 are striking over pay and conditions only. The remaining three are protesting over pensions alone.

See the list below:

Universities striking over both pensions and pay and conditions:

• Aston University
• Bangor University
• Cardiff University
• University of Durham
• Heriot-Watt University
• Loughborough University
• Newcastle University
• Open University
• University of Aberdeen
• University of Bath
• University of Dundee
• University of Leeds
• University of Manchester
• University of Sheffield
• University of Nottingham
• University of Stirling
• University College London
• University of Birmingham
• University of Bradford
• University of Bristol
• University of Cambridge
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Exeter
• University of Essex
• University of Glasgow
• University of Lancaster
• University of Leicester
• City University
• Goldsmiths College
• Queen Mary University of London
• Royal Holloway
• University of Reading
• University of Southampton
• University of St Andrews
• Courtauld Institute of Art
• University of Strathclyde
• University of Wales
• University of Warwick
• University of York
• University of Liverpool
• University of Sussex
• University of Ulster
• Queen’s University Belfast

Universities striking over over pay and conditions only

• Bishop Grosseteste University
• Bournemouth University
• Edge Hill University
• Glasgow Caledonian University
• Glasgow School of Art
• Liverpool Hope University
• Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
• Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
• St Mary’s University College, Belfast
• Roehampton University
• Sheffield Hallam University
• University of Brighton
• University of Kent
• University of Oxford

Universities striking over pensions alone:

• Scottish Association of Marine Science
• University of East Anglia
• Institute of Development Studies