Results due on ballot for lecturers to strike again

STUDENTS heading back to university for the start of the summer term should know tomorrow late tomorrow whether their lecturers will be on strike.

A ballot over latest proposals in the university pensions dispute closes at 2pm tomorrow with results expected soon afterwards, the University College Union said.

UCU members are being consulted on whether to accept Universities UK’s latest offer to set up a joint expert panel to re-examine valuation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

If UCU members vote to accept the proposals then strike action will be suspended.

If members reject the proposals, there will be strike action targeted to hit teaching, and the exam and assessment period, the union warned.

More than 60 universities across the UK, including four in Wales, have already been hit with 14 days of strikes as part of action that began in February.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said the union has come far since the dispute began. She said that getting university employers to pull a proposal to shift the USS scheme from one with defined benefits in retirement to a defined contribution one was a win for the union, as was the employers’ commitment to look at how the scheme is valued.

In a message to members she said: “These latest proposals were won by the solid action of UCU members and it is right for them to have their say on what happens next.”

The four Welsh universities involved are Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff University and the University of Wales Trinity St David. Cardiff Met and the University of South Wales operate a different pension scheme and Swansea University UCU branch didn’t get a big enough mandate to strike.