Universities shut up shop as lecturers strike over pensions

Students at Dundee and St Andrews universities will be among hundreds across the country to miss lectures today and tomorrow as staff stage a two-day strike.

Nine Scottish institutions will join 55 UK universities in closing their doors in their first protest against “unfair” pensions.

There will be picket lines outside the affected buildings from 8am today.

The industrial action will run between today and March 16.

The University and College Union (UCU) said the month of protests will have a detrimental affect on around a million students and see 575,000 teaching hours lost.

The walk-out follows plans to end the defined benefit element of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension.

Union officials claim the move would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement than under the current set-up.

Universities UK, the universities’ representatives, have refused to negotiate with the UCU as they continue to push the changes through.

The union will meet next week to assess the response to the first wave of strike action and to ascertain if further action is needed.

They said nothing was off the table.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “We will be meeting on March 2 to consider what wave two of the action might need to involve.

“We doubt any universities want a prolonged dispute that carries on towards exam season and would urge vice-chancellors to put pressure on Universities UK to get back round the table with us.”

This week’s action will be followed by three days of strikes next week on February 26, 27 and 28.

The third wave will take place over four days on March 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Week four will see five days of strike action from March 12 to 16.

The Scottish universities involved this week are Dundee, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Heriot Watt, Strathclyde and the Scottish Association for Marine Science at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Edinburgh and Stirling universities will join in next week’s action.