More than 65,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) working in higher education institutions across the UK are to be balloted for strike action after employers refused to increase their 1.4% pay offer. It comes as two universities in the South East announce they are merging to create a ‘super-university’.
All five trade unions representing higher education workers at pay negotiations with the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) have voted to reject the “3% real-terms pay cut”.
The UCU said the 1.4% pay award also compares poorly to awards from similar sectors, such as the 4% recommended to teachers. It said it follows more than a decade of “vicious attacks” on the pay and conditions of university staff, which have led to pay being degraded against inflation by at least 30%.
University strike ballot
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UCU has begun preparations for an aggregated UK-wide university strike ballot of its members, covering 138 institutions, which it expects to open on 20 October.
Its sister trade unions in higher education – GMB, Unite, Unison and the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) – are also considering strike ballots of their university members.
In the absence of movement from employers, successful ballots will help pave the way for coordinated industrial action between every union representing university workers in the new year, causing maximum disruption on campus, said UCU.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “University employers are now on notice that we will launch a UK-wide pay ballot with the potential for coordinated strike action that will cause maximum disruption on campus.
“Our members, not vice-chancellors, are the people who support students, create teaching materials, conduct world-leading research and keep universities running; we are the university.
“Employers now need to recognise that imposing a 1.4% pay award, when inflation is still soaring, is a significant real-terms pay cut and an insult to hard-working higher education staff. It’s time for them to come back to the table with an improved offer that will settle this dispute and avoid the need for a strike ballot and potential industrial action.”
‘Perplexing’
Raj Jethwa, UCEA chief executive, said: “It is palpably clear that the sector’s HE institutions cannot afford to improve the uplift. The sector is grappling with reduced income because of a decline in overseas students, increased costs for employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and an increase of over £370 million in employer national insurance contributions.
“UCEA has already begun to deliver on the other elements of our extensive final pay offer. This included progress on our proposals for joint work with the unions to further reduce pay gaps and to promote good practice on contract types and workload. We were clear that this joint work would continue, as long as the unions did not ballot for industrial action. The trade unions’ decision means UCEA will now continue this work, but without the input of the trade unions.”
Unions are asking for an uplift of 3.5% on top of the retail prices index measure of inflation, which would amount to 7.8%.
Jethwa commented: “This is perplexing when institutions cannot afford the current uplift. The sector urges the trade unions to understand sector financial sustainability, and reconsider [their] decision and the repercussions before any industrial action ballot is launched.”
The last UK-wide university strike action taken by UCU resulted in a significant win, restoring a 35% cut to staff pensions. GMB, Unite, Unison and EIS have not yet confirmed any plans to ballot for industrial action.
‘Super-university’ proposed through merger
Meanwhile, a “super-university” has been proposed through a merger between the universities of Greenwich and Kent.
The two universities, which have campuses in south-east London, Medway and Canterbury, would combine under the “London and South East University Group”. The single institution will have one vice-chancellor from the academic year starting in autumn 2026.
The merged university group would operate across existing campuses, including in Medway, where students from both Greenwich and Kent have shared facilities for over 20 years.
Speaking to the BBC, the vice-chancellors of both universities said the move was not a takeover, nor driven by a financial crisis for either, but argued that the new university model would be “resilient and financially viable”.
Professor Jane Harrington, who runs Greenwich and would become vice-chancellor of the new institution, said: “This is about taking the best of both universities and saying what do we want to offer to our communities.”
Professor Randsley de Moura, interim leader at Kent, said the “trailblazing model” would enable the universities within the new group to retain their name, identity and campuses.
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