Follow our live coverage as teaching staff begin industrial action over pension changes they say will leave them £10,000 a year worse off in retirement
- Are you a striking lecturer, or a student missing out on teaching? Email alexandra.topping@theguardian.com or contact me on Twitter @lexytopping
- Share your stories and pictures via our form
We’re bring this liveblog to a close for the day, but do continue to contribute via GuardianWitness and please contact our journalists to bring any further issues to our attention. Thanks for tuning in!
The BBC are reporting:
The chief executive of the lecturers’ pension scheme at the centre of a university strike received a 17% pay rise worth an extra £82,000 this year.
Bill Galvin’s pay package had risen from £484,000 to £566,000, said a spokeswoman for the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
There is a lot of debate about this. Universities UK argue that the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)– a national pension scheme for employees in higher education at pre-1992 universities - has experienced a growing deficit and rising costs.
UUK argues there is a £6.1 bn shortfall in the scheme. The UCU disputes the deficit figure as overly pessimistic.
Difficult economic conditions mean the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme must address significant funding challenges: there’s a £6.1 billion deficit, which coupled with a one-third increase in the cost of future pension benefits means it would cost an additional £1 billion annually to afford the current benefits. Without changes, universities could struggle to pay staff pensions in the future without diverting money from teaching towards pensions, putting jobs at risk and damaging the quality of education.
To avoid this, universities have proposed changes to make the scheme secure and sustainable. Staff pensions would remain attractive. Employers will be paying in 18% of salaries into pensions – double the private sector average.
Pension schemes are valued in lots of ways and the regulator and trustees have to feel comfortable with the method used. USS use a bespoke method that it came up with. We believe that method is recklessly prudent and so undervalues the scheme. USS’s report of the valuation shows the scheme with an £8.3bn surplus if you take the best estimate. We would concede that the best estimate is a little risky and there should be some prudence built in by making cautious assumptions on things like mortality and salary growth.
Overall, the USS scheme is in rude health. The deficit is measured in lots of ways by USS and the assumptions you put in make a big difference to what you get out. The deficit appears large because USS have used overly prudent assumptions. But there is more money coming in through contributions than going out in payments each year, and if universities take a tiny bit more risk and agree to pay a bit more we can safeguard people’s pensions.
A group of young protesters have entered the Universities UK building “in solidarity with our striking comrades”.
"UUK IS IN OCCUPATION
In solidarity with our striking comrades, we confront the commodifiers of our education!"https://t.co/Kz9TnsV0Cp
I small group of people have told the Guardian they have entered the @UniversitiesUK building, and issued a statement: https://t.co/OeGeQOSF4K#USSstrikepic.twitter.com/J9BPVFNgR4
In solidarity with our striking comrades, we confront the commodifiers of our education! Universities UK (UUK) are a parasitic organisation which profits directly from the increasing marketisation of our education system.
It is UUK who lobbied for raising tuition fees: a 200% rise from 2004 to 2010 alone. It is UUK who have proposed the theft of pensions from our academic staff, which will disproportionately affect those in already casualised positions, many of whom are women and people of colour.
Interesting email from 25-years-old Hazem Raad, a foreign student on a scholarship from Syria. He arrived in London mid September last year, and is a student in the Development Planning Unit in UCL.
Raqad’s studies have high stakes, he explains: “[T]he eventual goal of my career is to contribute to the reconstruction of Syria by setting higher standards than those that led to the ongoing conflict. The degree I’m studying tackles urban planning in development on the scales of local governing, community collectives, and institutional policy.”
Foreign student Hazem Raad, from Syria, has emailed with some powerful thoughts: "We chose to study in a country of civil rights, and when those rights are compromised we have an obligation to stand in solidarity against the abusers." pic.twitter.com/dwXO6K8W7G
I arrived from Syria six months ago, and as a practitioner in the field of development, fleeing a war-zone is not exactly a step up, but I came here for the education. I invested a lot of my time and effort into getting the scholarship that allowed me to further push my career, and then I suddenly found myself missing out on a third of an entire term because of the strike.
However, what made this city’s ability to provide world-class education are the very people affected by the pension cuts. I stand by the academia against the university who is failing its contractual obligations to provide us with staff free to dedicate itself entirely to teaching and research rather than getting worried about their mysterious futures.
Thoughtful note from Guardian reader and striking cognitive science lecturer:
To me and most if not all of my striking colleagues, the strike action extends beyond issues related to pensions, to include the more general climate and pressure that we are experiencing in recent years. The REF, the TEF, the university restructuring, job losses, the consumerist perspective in what is becoming a fierce market, etc, all contribute to squeezing staff a little more at each turn. To the argument that “hey, in the real world industry, that’s how it happens”, I typically point out that, in the real world, yes people are expected to take on more of the risk, pressure and financial burden, but salaries are magnitude higher than that of academic staff. #iamnotalemon would be a good hashtag :)
Sussex University student Laura Femmer, from Germany, warned that if lecturers quit as a result of pension cuts, universities will lose their allure to foreign students pic.twitter.com/TR6AqCWUSv
Foreign student Laura Femmer, from Germany, warned that if lecturers were forced out of the profession as a result of having inferior terms imposed, it would affect UK universities’ ability to attract foreign students, whose fees are invaluable.
The 27-year-old environmental development and policy student said:
“If they cut the pensions, a lot of the lecturers will probably leave and the quality of the teaching will probably drop. The UK education system is ver specialised compared with Germany. If this (lecturers leaving due to pension cuts) is happening, a lot of students (from overseas) will decide not to come.”
Liz Truss, chief secretary to the treasury, has ruffled some feathers by praising the “excellent” and “committed” lecturers who have walked across the picket line today.
Some excellent lecturers *are* going in to work today. I salute you. #committed
This is so shocking. How *dare* you suggest that I am not committed, because I choose to strike to protect a pension where the risk is shared and not individual? Good grief - what kind of people are running our country?
Message from one of my #CivilEngineering@School_of_MACE students. ‘I’m stood with one of my *excellent* lecturers - he’s on strike because he’s worried about his future (and he’s married to an NHS nurse too!)’ @ucu@UM_UCU#Strike#USSstrikepic.twitter.com/ZLeAvOFciu
Standing on a picket line at the university of Manchester, Tom Gillespie, a lecturer in international development, said the pensions dispute was “part of a much broader process of marketisation” where universities were increasingly being run as for-profit businesses. “Manchester are charging huge fees to students, they are accumulating large surpluses and they are spending huge amounts of money on remodelling and beautifying the campus. At the same time they are trying to squeeze labour costs by cutting the wages of academics,” he said.
Gillespie said he was hopeful that the dispute would be resolved quickly, and that the resolve of vice chancellors was “starting to crumble”. “They can afford to pay people’s pensions, they just don’t want to, so there’s no reason why this has to carry on for weeks or months,” he said. “This is why it’s important that we have a really good turn out in the first week of strike action, so that it doesn’t have to last very long.”
Roy Wogelius, a professor of Geochemistry, said the proposed changes to academic pensions were a financial trick designed to change the asset to liability ratio of Universities UK, in order to make it easier for universities to borrow money from the private sector. “This cheap borrowed money will be used to build halls of residence and extend classrooms, so that the already successful Russell Group can expand their overseas market share,” he said in an email to the Guardian. “They will get better terms on their loans if they offload their liabilities, and so a minority (in fact a small minority) have decided to shift current risk from the large and well-funded employer pool onto the backs of individual academics. This frees them up to accept other types of financial risk.
“This is a betrayal of British academia that should have the entire country up in arms. This is not about ensuring the future of a world-class education system for British children, this is not about a ‘deficit’ in the USS pension scheme, this is about ramping up profits to feed the greed of administrators and bankers whilst ruining the reputation and sustainability of one of the UK’s most prestigious and successful industries.”
Massive turnout @UniKent: Staff & students are joining in solidarity to demand fair pensions @UniKent#USSstrike@UCU#moral_outragepic.twitter.com/H3q0BHEooW
Cracking turnout at UCU rally in Glasgow on day 1 of 14 days of UCU strike action for fair pensions for university staff. pic.twitter.com/FVuvRX44g0
We're standing with UCU comrades this morning. They're on strike fighting the attack on their pensions. UNISON Cardiff staff supporting the UCU Open University picket line @ucu@UCUWales@OpenUniversity@UNISONinHEpic.twitter.com/j9A9ugmGOM
Queen's and Ulster University staff are out on strike over what they're calling "massive cuts" to their pensions. Tens of thousands of acamedics have walked out across the UK.We have the latest on news @ 11 pic.twitter.com/BL5Cd1kK4p
Cambridge students occupy Senate House lawn in solidarity with striking academics!!! @ucu@cambridgeucupic.twitter.com/n2NYZXI9Kz
Speaking at a rally of around 250 people in the basement of the Manchester University student’s union, Martyn Moss, north west regional officer at the UCU, told the crowd that strike action at the university was particularly important because it was the union’s biggest and fastest growing branch.
Students around the country have been contributing photographs to our callout, many of them showing the ways they are supporting striking lecturers.
From Cambridge, Tom Grillo sends this striking image:
Despite mounting pressure on both sides to return to negotiations, the war of words continued throughout the day. Universities UK (UUK), which represents university employers, issued a statement warning that keeping unaffordable pensions benefits for university staff would hit current students hardest.
A spokesman insisted it was open to further negotiations and accused the union of refusing to budge on its original “unaffordable” proposal. “If a credible, affordable solution were to be put forward by the union, employers would want to consider it,” he said.
Union leaders need to listen to the concerns of the Pensions Regulator and USS. Pensions risk is very real. Their dismissal of the funding challenges is hugely concerning, the very reason employers and the scheme must act responsibly to protect pensions and students.
We remain at the negotiating table to engage with UCU on the long-term sustainability of the scheme and we continue to seek further talks.
Four members of Sussex University’s media department were huddled together in the cold on the picket line.
(L to R) Simidele Dosekun, Naaz Rashid, Caroline Bassett & Pollyanna Ruiz, all from Sussex Uni media dept, on UCU picket line pic.twitter.com/AWoNlw0q4J
It’s about what universities are. It’s an attack on higher education and a process of marketisation. We’ve been told the senior management want to support us but they can’t but we look around and see their salaries and the buildings [being newly built].
It’s about what education is and what we want it to be. We came into this job because we care about students and we care about research and it’s important to defend those values.
It appalls me that students are having to pay all that money. We (lecturers) are not given any security and that offends me. How can you say you value higher education and then not put money into it?
Bristol University maths students Alex Copeland and Harry Iveson, both 19, are missing lectures in linear algebra, group theory and calculus. But they joined 1,000 or so demonstrators who gathered outside the Wills Memorial building and marched to College Green, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Copeland said: “We’re here to support our lecturers. It’s disgraceful what’s been happening with the pension scheme. The vice chancellors are clubbing together. They are not prepared to decrease their pensions or share their wealth but they are expecting the burden to fall on our lecturers. That’s disgusting. I’m more than willing to catch up in my own time if it means supporting our lecturers.”
Kit Fotheringham, a 26-year-old PhD law student and teacher of tort is also on the Wills Memorial building picket line.
I’ve got 35 or 40 years before I retire, I have different pots of pensions from different jobs that I have done. All of those are defined contributions.
I know what defined contributions means. It’s shit. It’s effectively gambling on the stock market.
Ed Burtonshaw-Gunn, a 25-year-old PhD student and teacher in land law to second year students is on thepicket line outside the Wills Memorial building at the University of Bristol.
I’m trying to save my pension before I even start paying into it. That is a very important thing for me and for all of us here.
The proposed cuts are enormous. I’ve played around with some figures online. Over my 30 or 35 years, it will drop my pension by a couple of hundred thousand pounds. That’s a large amount of money.
Lucy Williams, NUS activities officer at Sussex University, said she is supporting the lecturers’ strike because they went beyond the call of duty when she was struggling during her degree pic.twitter.com/ZLAaaMXF0y
Lucy Williams, NUS activities officer at Sussex University, said she felt indebted to lecturers who helped her get diagnosed with dyslexia when aged 22.
Williams, now 24, who was in the group of around 200 students marching around the campus in support of the strike, said:
“I’m here because when I was in university my lecturers went above and beyond the call of duty, not just to provide an education but (they) did a lot of pastoral care. When I was not engaging, they completely turned my degree around.
“It’s important that lecturers are given the pay and pension they deserve and were promised.
“We (the NUS) asked students if they wanted to support, oppose or stay neutral (on the strike) students voted overwhelmingly to support. Huge numbers of people came to the meeting.
“This is my fourth year here and I’ve never seen more support than I’ve seen for this particular demonstration and Sussex has a very radical political history.”
More than 1,000 lecturers and students held a rally at the Wills Memorial Building in Bristol before marching down Park Street towards the city centre.
Lots of students standing alongside striking lecturers in Bristol. pic.twitter.com/GieQFXp2sA
Lecturers and students now marching towards Bristol city centre. pic.twitter.com/6YMLEAF7z1
Solidarity from John McDonnell on the Goldsmiths picket line #ucustrike@lexytopping@GoldsmithsUCUpic.twitter.com/iyIBs3Mt0q
UK university staff strike over pension changes https://t.co/TJ5uu3NML2 PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON OUT THERE. EMAIL ME ON SALLY.WEALE@THEGUARDIAN.COM
The government is becoming increasingly frustrated with the impasse between university employers and the union, and the impact the strike action will have on students whose £9250 annual fees are now under review amid growing concern about the burden of debt they face.
Universities minister Sam Gyimah has intervened, talking to both sides and urging them to return to negotiations. 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.
Readers involved in or affected by the strikes – including lecturers, students and parents – have been contacting us to share their views via our form.
Among those getting in touch is Meghan, a third year history student at Royal Holloway:
Our students’ union passed a motion in support of the strikes just yesterday, encouraging us to boycott any contact hours we do have and stay at home.
I was initially very disappointed in my dissertation tutor for striking, but after speaking to her (she’s 32) and understanding more about her specific situation and reasoning I do sympathise. I was broadly in support of but what had bothered me was seeing USS placards saying the campus is “closed” and telling students not to cross picket lines, stay at home and to boycott any lectures they do have. This made me angry – I’m a third year student and in order to get my dissertation done I must use the library, and I don’t see why I should willingly suffer any more than I already will.
The mood on the picket lines is one of mixed emotions: while it is great to feel the togetherness, we are saddened for having had to take this decision.
I’m 35, an early career academic, and have thus only recently started paying into my pension. The prospect of an insecure future leaves me extremely anxious and does no good to my mental health, damaging the love I have for British higher education, where I studied and now work. I do think the strike could have been avoided, and I also regret having to let my students down — it’s been a painful decision but their support truly means a lot.
If you’re not entirely sure why university staff are striking today - here is a useful explainer:
Why are university staff striking?
Labour MP Fabian Hamilton has withdrawn from an event due to take place on University of Leeds campus tomorrow, saying: “I am not prepared to cross the picket line”.
Staff and students at the University of Leeds and other institutions across the country have my full support, as @ucu calls for employers to enter meaningful negotiations and resolve the dispute over pensions, which would see a typical lecturer become £10,000 worse off.
Following the decision of the UCU to strike on the Friday 23rd February, I have decided to withdraw from the British Foreign Policy Group panel. The panel discussion was due to take place on the same day as planned industrial action as lecturers and staff walk over pensions, and I am not prepared to cross the picket line. The UCU has made it very clear that it has been forced into this action, as proposed changes to the pension scheme would leave lecturers £10,000 worse off than under the current scheme. Striking staff from the university have my absolute support in resolving this issue in favour of the workers.
Things are heating up, reports Haroon Siddique, with students in Sussex attempting to block the path of buses trying to get on campus.
Students at Sussex University are blocking the path of buses trying to get onto campus, chanting “Hey Tickell (vice-chancellor Adam Tickell), we say no to your pension cuts.” pic.twitter.com/dcV0R0bg60
Students are demonstrating in solidarity with their lecturers outside Sussex University pic.twitter.com/Pn72tygec3
Tonia Novitz, professor of Labour law and deputy picket supervisor.
My colleague Haroon Siddique is in Brighton, and has sent this dispatch:
Chris Chatwin, president of UCU at Sussex University, and leading today’s strike, said vice-chancellors are “acting like Roman emperors” pic.twitter.com/tlYn7dCOx4
Chris Chatwin, president of the UCU at Sussex University, where there are four picket lines, said turnout has been strong.
“All we are actually asking for is for the management to come back to the table with the union to discuss the pension offer,” he said. “It appears to me they don’t want a settlement because they want to break the pension settlement and break the UCU.
Among the 30-odd lecturers and students on the picket line outside the Arthur Lewis building at Manchester University this morning was Richie Nimmo, a lecturer in sociology.
“The pensions scheme was downgraded really significantly just a few year ago, from the defined benefit scheme into a hybrid scheme and the losses that we sustained then were quite significant,” he said.
Dan Rigby, economics professor at Manchester University, says the USS pension deficit projections are based on a “ridiculous scenario” in which all universities in the scheme go bust. He says the changes transfer all the risk from the universities and onto staff. #ucustrikepic.twitter.com/Z47j2AUIYw
While it is clear that not all students support the decision of university staff to strike, many do - and some have articulated that support powerfully.
This letter from students at university of Lancaster is a good example:
It is not sympathy that your staff and students need. It is solidarity. It is action. We, the students of Lancaster University, call on you to exert your influence to protect not only your staff’s pensions but our future as well. Today’s Lancaster University students, the collective signatories of this letter, are tomorrow’s academics, researchers and teachers.
Powerful letter from University of Lancaster students, giving support to striking university staff #USSstrikepic.twitter.com/mfEFXYtH4A
My colleague Steve Morris is on the university staff picket line at Bristol University
banging the drum - or pan - on the lecturers’ picket line in Bristol. Uni strike https://t.co/HnWJcozVxd via @YouTube
Not a huge amount of criticism of the strike out there, but here is a little smattering
#USSstrikehttps://t.co/pu8k18RQGu
University lecturers don't live in the real world. Today's strike action proves it https://t.co/3938TmOvtMpic.twitter.com/ypLZAHUwNX
Three-fifths of students support striking university staff members, according to a YouGov poll released today.
Key findings:
· Overall, three-fifths of students (61%) said they supported the strikes
This poll shows it is quite clear who students think is to blame for the strikes at universities. We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from students and want to assure them we are doing all we can to get this dispute resolved.
Students are threatening to sue for compensation, university vice-chancellors are breaking ranks and publicly calling for their representatives in UUK to restart talks, and the universities minister has said it’s time for talks.
My colleague Frances Perraudin has just arrived at the picket line outside the Manchester University student union.
Students out supporting their lecturers at the University of Manchester. “Students and workers, unite and fight”. #ucustrikespic.twitter.com/xHsX81ooS8
Small groups have started to gather on picket lines by entrances to the University of Manchester. Academics are striking here and at Salford university today, with the action expected to affect over 60,000 students – 40,000 at Manchester and 19,995 at Salford.
Manchester University is the UK’s largest single-site university with around 40,000 students and more than 12,000 staff, including almost 7,000 academics and researchers. 90% of UCU members at the university backed strike action on a 55% turnout.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has posted a YouTube video articulating his support for striking university staff.
Corbyn said:
On behalf of the Labour Party, I want to send solidarity and thanks for all the work you do in our universities and colleges. We are deeply concerned by the proposed changes to the USS that would leave our university staff up to 10,000 a year worse off in retirement.
“It’s been great to see strong support from students for striking staff, but for everyone’s sake we need to find a solution which avoids further disruption.
Today, thousands of university staff will take part in the biggest strike our Higher Education sector has ever seen.
I join staff, students and @UCU in calling for the employers to commit to meaningful negotiations to resolve this dispute. pic.twitter.com/RMzWynVZXk
Many university staff members have taken to Twitter using the hashtag #USSStrike and blogs today to explain why they are striking. Many are keen to stress that this isn’t just about changes to their pension fund, the University Superanuation Scheme (USS) but it is also a protest against the marketisation” of university life.
I don’t want to strike, but I must. Since joining the academy 10 years ago, I’ve seen the value of my pension drop dramatically because of the economic crisis, the final salary scheme close to new colleagues and then the scheme closed for me. #USSstrike
I love my job - teaching super bright students and doing research with talented scientists. But I am taking industrial action to try and protect academic pensions. I am sorry for the impacts this will have - in this thread I will explain why I'm doing it. #USSstrike#UCUstrike
Today, the biggest ever strike in the UK's Higher Education sector begins. We're striking over an attack on staff pensions. But this is also about the marketisation of universities - student fees, insecure contracts and the commodification of education #USSstrike
As a lecturer who tries to encourage students to critically examine the society we live in, my employer is forcing me to accept the further neoliberalisation, financialisation and marketisation of university culture against my will. This is the same culture that led to the introduction and increase of the tuition fees paid by students; the fees I marched against even as my own time in education was ending.
Welcome to the Guardian’s liveblog of the university staff members’ strike, where we will keep you informed of all the day’s developments as they happen.
Teaching staff at 57 universities (seven others will follow at different points in the next four weeks) have this morning started the first of a series of planned strikes over the next four weeks, staging a two-day walkout over proposed changes to pensions that they say will leave them £10,000 a year worse off in retirement.
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