Strikes at UK universities are to continue after staff overwhelmingly rejected a revised offer on their pensions.

The University and College Union was forced to throw out the deal it had negotiated with university employers after members voted against it.



The union will now draw up detailed plans aimed at disrupting summer examinations in an escalation of the industrial action, which is now in its fourth week.

Quick guide University strike: the offer explained Show Hide What’s on offer in the deal? Significantly, the offer on the table is only a temporary arrangement for three years. There are three key strands. First, it will retain “a meaningful level of defined benefits” for all scheme members. This has been crucial to the union’s negotiating position in its fight against plans to introduce a defined contributions scheme, but this rather vague promise is for the length of the interim deal only, with no guarantees beyond. To fund it, both employers and staff will have to pay increased contributions. From next April, employer contributions will go up from 18% of salaries to 19.3%, while members’ contributions will go up from 8% to 8.7%. Second, there is an agreement to set up an independent expert panel to look again at the valuation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which has been a source of fierce dispute between the two sides. And finally, the two sides agreed to get together again soon to look at risk-sharing alternatives for the future, ie what happens after three years – basically they start the process all over again. Have university staff got what they want? No. Many feel they are being asked to pay more in contributions for less in return, based on a valuation of a scheme that was based on flawed calculations. They fear that because it is only an interim deal, employers will come back in three years and attempt another assault on their pensions when resistance may be weaker. They argue that any changes to their pensions should not be agreed until a more credible evaluation is carried out. They are also irritated about a clause in the deal that suggests they should reschedule classes lost during strike action, which they say adds insult to injury. What happens next? The strike action continues as planned while the proposal is considered by local branches and the higher education committee of the University and College Union. It is also being looked at by employers at Universities UK and the USS.

The original proposal had said that if there was agreement strikes would be halted, but with angry protests outside UCU headquarters and #NoCapitulation trending on Twitter agreement seems far from guaranteed. Without agreement, industrial action is due to continue through the week and the UCU has threatened a further 14 days of strikes around exam time if the pensions dispute is not resolved. Photograph: Mark Hawkins / Barcroft Images/Barcroft Media

The deal, which had been reached on Monday night after six days of talks at the conciliation service Acas, was thrown out when the UCU’s higher education committee met on Tuesday after local branches had rejected it.

The union is now calling for urgent negotiations with employers, represented by Universities UK (UUK), aimed at ending the dispute, which has caused widespread disruption at more than 60 universities.

The UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “Branches made it clear today that they wanted to reject the proposal. UCU’s greatest strength is that we are run by and for our members and it is right that members always have the final say.

“The strike action for this week remains on and we will now make detailed preparations for strikes over the assessment and exam period. We want urgent talks with the universities’ representatives to try and find a way to get this dispute resolved.”

Many branches and members had earlier expressed their hostility to the deal, which was described as derisory. People used the hashtag #NoCapitulation on Twitter to call for the deal to be rejected.

Q&A Are you taking part in or affected by university strikes? Show Hide Whether you are a university lecturer or a student affected by the strikes, we want to hear from you and understand the issues from your perspective. Share your views and experiences using our encrypted form here. One of our journalists may contact you to discuss further and we will feature some of your contributions in our reporting.

“This is not the deal that I have put my research and my students’ educations on hold for,” wrote Dr Donna Yates, an archaeologist. “This is not the deal that I stood outside for hours in a blizzard for. This is NOT the deal we have been striking for.”

Staff were particularly angry that part of the proposed deal included an undertaking by the UCU to encourage its members to prioritise the rescheduling of teaching lost during the strike in order to minimise the disruption to students.

UUK said it was disappointed by the decision and was talking to Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) employers about revising the mandate for a planned meeting of the joint negotiating committee on Wednesday.

“It is hugely disappointing that students’ education will be further disrupted through continued strike action,” a spokesperson said. “We have engaged extensively with UCU negotiators to find a mutually acceptable way forward. The jointly developed proposal on the table, agreed at Acas, addresses the priorities that UCU set out.”

The spokesperson said UUK had offered to increase employer contributions “to ensure that all members would receive meaningful defined benefits”. Concerns about the valuation had been recognised and it had agreed to convene an independent expert valuation group.

That group was to be set up as part of the deal rejected by staff who have been striking over plans to shift their pensions from a defined benefit scheme, giving members a guaranteed income in retirement, to a defined contribution scheme, where pensions are subject to changes in the stock market.



The UCU says its members stand to lose £10,000 every year of their retirement. UUK has claimed the changes are necessary because the USS is £6.1bn in deficit, but UCU has disputed this valuation and says the fund is performing adequately.

The proposed deal was a three-year interim arrangement which would have required employers and members to pay higher contributions for that period, with total employer contributions up to 19.3% of salary, and members’ contributions rising to 8.7%. The two sides had also agreed to explore risk-sharing alternatives for the future from 2020, in particular collective-defined contributions.