University strikes escalate after staff reject “low-ball” offer

Two further days of strike action at UK universities are going ahead this week after staff rejected the employers’ pay offer. Over 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK will down tools on Thursday (9 February) and Friday (10 February).  

The action comes after an overwhelming 80% of members who voted rejected the latest offer from employers. Over 30,000 UCU members responded to UCU’s online poll which was open for just four days. The offer is worth only 5% for most UCU members. 

The National Union of Students (NUS) is backing staff taking the strike action, which will impact 2.5 million students [NOTE 1]. The University and College Union (UCU) said university bosses are “in hiding” and need to engage properly in negations if they want to stop a further 15 days of strike action from going ahead over the next two months [NOTE 2]. 

Staff will be picketing all 150 universities across the UK on both days of strike action [NOTE 3]. Thursday (8 February) is staff and student solidarity day, UCU general secretary Jo Grady will be on the picket line at Sussex University in Brighton from 9am alongside striking staff, NUS vice president Nehaal Bajwa and supportive students [NOTE 4]. 

Despite staff emphatically rejecting the 5% pay award, employers have not yet responded with an improved offer [NOTE 5]. Employers have also continually failed to address insecure employment practices and workloads, two issues that are central to this dispute. There are over 90,000 university staff on insecure contracts and staff work an average of two extra days unpaid per week.

In the pension dispute, UCU is demanding employers revoke the cuts and restore benefits. The package of cuts made last year will see the average member lose 35% of their guaranteed future retirement income. For those at the beginning of their career the losses are in the hundreds of thousands of pounds [NOTE 6].  

The sector holds more than £44bn in reserves and has a yearly income of over £42bn [NOTE 7]. Employers have admitted it would cost just 3.75%  of their reserves to settle UCU’s pay claim. The highest paid vice-chancellor earnt £714,000 in 2021/22. Last week Kay Burley asked for any of the sector’s 150 vice-chancellors to be interviewed by her on Sky News and account for the state of higher education. Not one has volunteered. 

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said:

‘It is no surprise that university staff have overwhelmingly rejected a low-ball 5% offer from employers, this is a huge real-terms pay cut that would leave our members worse off. We are striking for 48 hours this week and will take escalating action until we get a fair deal. 

‘University bosses hold over £40bn in reserves, but they would rather hoard that money than use just a fraction of it to settle our dispute and bring an end to the unprecedented strike action that is hitting universities. Whilst they earn up to £714k a year, tens of thousands of our members are on insecure contracts, some as short as six weeks, and have seen their pay held down for over a decade. We have repeatedly asked bosses to explain why they refuse to deal with the issues that blight higher education. Yet they refuse to publicly justify their position. We know the bosses are in hiding because their position is indefensible.’ 

NUS vice-president for higher education Chloe Field said:

‘The vice-chancellors in charge of our universities would rather see students face disruption on a scale we have never seen before than pay staff what they are worth. Every day of teaching we lose is completely the fault of vice-chancellors who refuse to pay their staff properly.’ 

[1] There are 1,865,000 undergraduate students and 685,000 postgraduate students studying at the universities facing strike action.

[2] The 15 further days of strike action are: 

• Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 February  
• Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February  
• Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 March  
• Thursday 16 and Friday 17 March  
• Monday 20, Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 March 

[3] The full list of institutions that will face strike action is available here. All pickets start at 9am on each strike day unless otherwise stated. Picket locations are available here.

[4] UCU general secretary Jo Grady is available to be interviewed on Thursday from the picket line from 9.30am at Sussex University alongside NUS vice president Neehal Bajwa, striking staff and supportive students. The picket location is Falmer, Brighton BN1 9PR.