Strike fears for students

A FURTHER wave of strikes at universities is the “last thing” that students need or deserve amid the coronavirus pandemic, it has been suggested.

Professor Alistair Fitt, vicechancellor of Oxford Brookes University and a member of the Employers’ Pension Forum, has suggested that students will “suffer” if walkouts go ahead before the end of the year.

His comments come after staff at universities backed strike action in two ballots over pensions and pay and working conditions, which means students at 58 institutions could be affected by walkouts.

The University and College Union’s (UCU) higher education committee will meet this week to decide next steps.

The dispute comes after a joint negotiating committee backed pension proposals put forward by Universities UK to deal with a funding shortfall in the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

But the UCU claims cuts to the scheme would reduce the guaranteed retirement income of a typical member by 35%.

Prof Fitt warned that no change to the pensions scheme was “simply not an option”.

He said that “ignoring the problem” and allowing contributions to rise to up to 56% of payroll to cover the deficit of the scheme - as originally suggested by the

USS - would have “forced” institutions to close.

Prof Fitt said: “The USS trustee has confirmed that should reforms be blocked, members and employers will face escalating contribution rates starting in April 2022 and rising every six months until 2025, rapidly reaching completely unaffordable levels that would undoubtedly lead to mass member opt-out and employer insolvency.

“The high quality university experience that students currently enjoy would suffer.”

Last week, 76% of UCU members who voted in a ballot over pensions backed a fresh wave of strikes, with 88% in favour of action short of strikes. Meanwhile, 70.1% of UCU members who voted in the ballot over pay and working conditions backed strikes and 84.9% voted for action short of strike.