Students demand £1.3k compensation each for lectures axed by strikes
MORE than 100,000 students are demanding compensation of up to £1,300 each for classes cancelled due to lecturers’ strikes.
Universities could end up paying out millions to youngsters who say the walkouts have disrupted their education in the run-up to their end-of-year exams.
Petitions at universities across the country calling for reimbursement for lost teaching hours have garnered thousands of signatures each. The number signing up across the 61 universities affected is thought to be in six figures.
Around 45,000 university staff staged a walkout yesterday and will do the same today in a row over changes to their pensions.
The University and College Union (UCU), which represents ordinary academics and other staff, has argued that the current proposals would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement.
One million students were affected by the strike which saw lecturers set up picket lines on campuses and hold protests with placards. In total, 14 strike days will be held over four weeks – and if a settlement is not reached the action will continue to coincide with end-of-year exams.
Jeremy Corbyn released an online video sending ‘solidarity and thanks’ to the strikers. He said: ‘Everyone deserves the dignity and security in old age that comes from a decent pension.’
Universities minister Sam Gyimah called on both parties to get back to the negotiating table. He said: ‘I am deeply concerned about the impact this strike will have on students, who deserve to receive the education that they are paying for. For many, this is a vital time in their studies.’ Home Secretary Amber Rudd was less forgiving, telling lecturers to ‘get back to work’ because ‘people need to get their degrees’.
Many student unions came out in support of the lecturers, and yesterday a group held a protest inside the London headquarters of Universities UK, which is behind the pension changes.
The action has also won the sup- port of several university leaders, who broke ranks from Universities UK. Professor Chris Day, vice-chancellor of Newcastle University, wrote on Twitter: ‘I absolutely support staff’s decision to strike.’
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘I have made it clear from the start of this dispute that this mess can only be resolved by negotiation. Students should never have been put in this position.’
Academics walked out at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Exeter, Imperial College, Manchester, Newcastle, Southampton and Warwick. At Sussex a scuffle broke out when students protesting in solidarity with the strikers disrupted a psychology lecture. The protesters chanted ‘leave your lectures, join the strikes’ and were confronted by people in the lecture hall who tried to eject them and close the doors.
The row is over proposed changes to pensions covered by the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Universities UK, which represents vice chancellors, said in November it would stop offering staff traditional defined benefit pensions which offer a certainty of income in retirement. It wants to shift staff into a riskier, less generous defined contribution plan, which offers no assured pension, to help deal with rising costs as many private sector firms have done.
It came in response to a £6billion funding hole in the USS which would need £1billion a year extra in cash contributions from both university employers and employees to plug. Vice chancellors say they can’t afford to pay the extra, but the UCU said it could be made up if less were spent on largesse and pet projects.
Universities UK said a ‘credible, affordable solution’ would be considered but added: ‘It will be young people and the next generation of students who will also suffer if their education deteriorates because employers are forced to make cuts to pay more into pensions.’
It emerged yesterday that the chief executive of the lecturers’ pension scheme received a 17 per cent pay rise worth an extra £82,000 this year. Bill Galvin’s pay package had risen from £484,000 to £566,000, a USS spokesman said.
‘Deeply concerned’