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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Alexandra Topping

UK university staff strike over pension changes – live

Members of the University and College Union on strike outside the University of Kent campus in Canterbury.
Members of the University and College Union on strike outside the University of Kent campus in Canterbury. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

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!

Summary

University pension boss received £82,000 pay rise

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).

Running costs for the university pension scheme were over £124m per year - including two staff earning over £1m.

Mr Galvin has described the pension scheme as “excellent value”.

The pensions scheme now has a £6bn deficit and striking lecturers say that plans to tackle the shortfall will cut their retirement income by £10,000 per year.

What is the deficit in 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.

The UUK stance:

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.

The UCU stance:

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.

Strikers also argue that employees won’t really get the 18% being paid into pensions by employers - quite a chunk of it will go to servicing the existing debt on the fund, they say. They argue only 13.25% of the employer contributions goes to the employee, 4.75% goes to servicing the existing debt.

Protesters 'occupy' Universities UK building

A group of young protesters have entered the Universities UK building “in solidarity with our striking comrades”.

In a [edited] statement sent to the Guardian the occupiers said:

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.

It is UUK who refuse to come to the negotiation table, putting profits before the education of students and the living conditions of staff, and precipitating the strike action which has seen students lose contact time which the agitation of UUK for tuition fees has forced us to pay for. We believe in life after work – and in an education system designed to educate, not merely to make money for a parasitic management class, be that the Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, and Directors of our universities, or the profit seekers who run UUK. With usual incomes of 350.000£ - 450.000£ a year, it is the university managers in UUK who benefit from those malicious policies.

A spokesman at Universities UK confirmed that a group of about 16 young people had gained access to the reception area of the Universities UK building at around 11am and had refused to leave.

“They are eating snacks, drinking soft drinks and listening to music”, he said. Asked what kind of music the spokesman replied: “Well, it wasn’t to my taste.”

The protesters were not causing any problems and the vice-chancellors and all staff were able to get on with their business. Police have not been called but the building “would have to close for the day at some point,” he said.

Syrian student: 'We have an obligation to stand in solidarity'

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.”

Despite the inconvenience the strike has caused he fully supports it, he said: “I don’t pay any fees, but I have dedicated three years of my life to be able to get this scholarship, as the competitive nature of both UCL and the FCO scholarships set the bar too high for students ambitious to study in the UK due to the world-class quality of education.”

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.

And to be honest, what we might be missing out on in academics, we’re getting back in life experience. 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.

I know I am more privileged than to call on people who spent their lifesavings to support the strike. However, I know enough to say for-profit universities will try to direct your anger towards your professors, and that is plain wrong. Supporting the strike does not mean giving up your fees, and if campaigning for reimbursements is your biggest worries, do so in line with the strike, but always remember; The staff is the reason behind the reputation, the quality, and the efficiency of London in higher education. At least let them not worry about retiring in peace.

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 :)

Updated


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 riles strikers

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.

Striking university staff are not, as you may imagine, best pleased

Manchester university strikers: proposals “part of a much broader process of marketisation”

A sign pasted by the door of the Arthur Lewis Building at Manchester University
A sign pasted by the door of the Arthur Lewis Building at Manchester University Photograph: Jon Super for the Guardian

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.”

Crowded picket lines throughout the country

Updated

Students at Manchester University supporting a university staff striking over proposed changes to pensions
Students at Manchester University supporting a university staff striking over proposed changes to pensions Photograph: Jon Super for the Guardian

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.

“I’ve done more media interviews than I can count over the last 24 hours but one of the questions that i’ve been asked the most is ‘what’s the view of students about these disputes given that their teaching and learning is being damaged and disrupted’, and my answer to that is that what has been really striking in this dispute is the level of support students have shown to their lecturers and other academic related staff.”


“And the other question they ask me is what do I think of the students’ claim for compensation for their loss of fees… and what I’m absolutely clear about when answering that question to the press is that UCU has been prepared to negotiate a settlement since last October... None of you wanted to strike, out members don’t want to disrupt students’ education.”

Deej Malik-Johnson, the student union’s Campaigns & Citizenship Officer, told the crowd that it had been clear to him from the beginning that lecturers were right to strike. “The university will try and do its best to pit students against staff,” he said.
“We know who did this. This is not the UCU. It is not our teachers. It is not our mentors who have chosen to do this. The university and Universities UK have forced them into this position and we will never ever leave you hanging if you come to us for help.”

Updated

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:

University of Cambridge student rally in support of striking staff outside Old Schools and Kings College.
University of Cambridge student rally in support of striking staff outside Old Schools and Kings College. Photograph: Tom Grillo/GuardianWitness

Alice Gust has a good view of students’ messages of support at Imperial College London.

Students make their messages clear.
Students make their messages clear. Photograph: Alice Gust/GuardianWitness

And Beth Munns is at the University of Warwick, where staff and students have come together at a bus interchange on campus.

There will be alternative ‘Free University of Warwick’ events held throughout the day at the SU to challenge the commoditisation of higher education.
There will be alternative ‘Free University of Warwick’ events held throughout the day at the SU to challenge the commoditisation of higher education. Photograph: Beth Munns/GuardianWitness

You can share your images via GuardianWitness or through our form, here.

Updated

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.

UUK says the cost of future pensions has risen by one third in the last three years and claims the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – at the centre of the dispute – has a deficit of £6.1bn, which by law must be reduced. To meet union demands, employers would have to cut jobs and research to pay more into pensions, at the expense of students’ education, it says.

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.

This industrial action is targeted at students. It will be young people and the next generation of students who will also suffer if their education deteriorates because employers are forced to make cuts to pay more into pensions. Employers are committed to continuing to pay in 18% to staff pensions for the next five years, double the private sector average.

Four members of Sussex University’s media department were huddled together in the cold on the picket line.

Caroline Bassett, a professor of media, said:

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].

Pollyanna Ruiz, a senior lecturer in media, film and music, said:

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.

Naaz Rashid, a lecturer in media and culture, said both students and lecturers are being let down.

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.”

Iveson added: “I think it’s no fair what’s happening. If the strikes go on we’ll miss out on a lot of work. I’m slightly concerned about the effect but I understand why the lecturers are striking and want to support them. I feel the money they are not paying the lecturers should be fed back into other things, such as well-being.”

Kit Fotheringham, a 26-year-old PhD law student and teacher of tort is also on the Wills Memorial building picket line.

Kit Fotheringham on a picket line outside the Wills Memorial building.
Kit Fotheringham on a picket line outside the Wills Memorial building. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt for the Guardian

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.

Do I want to do that for the next 40 years? No. I think I’d rather know I’m going to be able to retire and live rather than fall into pension poverty and actually be a drain on the state later.

There’s loads of people who work in maths departments saying none of this stands up to scrutiny. We need to get the employers to listen to reason.

I think teaching will be quiet sparse today. I’ve had some students quite worried about what’s going on. This is their education being affected. I want to be in there teaching. I love my students.

The irony is that the trainee lawyers we produce here get paid £70,000 almost as soon as they’ve qualified. I won’t get that as a lecturer until I’m a the professor stage. We start on £30,000 and work our way up that.

Part of the attraction of being in academia is that you have a guaranteed pension. That’s really important. If that’s taken away what on earth’s the point?”

Ed Burtonshaw-Gunn, a 25-year-old PhD student and teacher in land law to second year students is on the picket line outside the Wills Memorial building at the University of Bristol.

Ed Burtonshaw-Gunn on a picket line outside the Wills Memorial Building
Ed Burtonshaw-Gunn on a picket line outside the Wills Memorial Building Photograph: Adrian Sherratt for the Guardian

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.

I don’t do this job for the cash. The students I teach will go out and earn more than me in their first year. I do it because I love it. But I don’t want to end up retiring on a pension that is not sufficient.

There are concerns this could cause a brain drain, that we could be losing valuable people. I could go and work in the private sector. We’ve got to keep doors open. We’ve got to see how it goes – the post-1992 universities have a different pension scheme. Why do universities like Bristol define themselves differently when I can go across the road and the benefits there are much better?

Updated


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.”

Students and university staff march in Bristol

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.

Mason Ammar, undergraduate education officer at Bristol Students’ Union, has sent an email to all students explaining how they can support their lecturers. The union is urging students not to cross picket lines.

In a statement he said: “We believe that fairly rewarded staff are the cornerstone of the university experience... This time round the strike is significantly longer than it has been in the past, with 14 days of striking announced. This will have an impact on students, but we still believe that it is vital that we continue to support our lecturers, as well as our postgraduate students who teach, by supporting this strike.”

The students’ union has carried out a survey of students.

Ammar said: “We found that 78% of respondents were either completely in support of the strike, or supportive of the strike with concerns about the impact it will have on their studies, understandably.”

The union is arguing that docked lecturers’ pay should be re-invested to help students. Most who responded to the survey suggested investing it in mental health and well-being services.

More than 4,000 people have signed a petition calling for £300 compensation for every student who loses contact time with lecturers and teachers.

The petition explains: “We judge this to be a fair share of the £9000 annual tuition fee that we already pay to this university that we will lose in the anticipated lecture cancellations.”

Updated

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell addresses crowd at Goldsmiths picket line

Updated

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.

“I am speaking to both Universities UK (UUK) and the University and College Union (UCU). I call on them to get back to the negotiating table, without pre-conditions, and to find a solution that avoids further disruption to students.

“Where any strike action takes place, we expect universities to keep a close eye on the impact on students, and to put in place measures to maintain the quality of education that they should receive.”

The strike comes at a time of heated debate within the sector about the high cost and ultimate value of some degrees. Students are now emerging from universities with upwards of £50,000 of debt, including living costs, while the vice-chancellors that run their institutions have come under fire for their inflated salaries and a lack of transparency around senior leaders’ remuneration.

Last week the prime minister announced a review of higher education to try to address concerns which will take a year, leading to accusations that the government was kicking the issue into the long grass.

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.

Students’ Union staff may have time to stand around on campus and tweet pictures of dogs on picket lines, but I certainly don’t! At the moment the general message seems to be that students support the strike – I’ve read plenty of points of view from both sides and while I support my tutors and their decision I don’t agree with striking at such a critical time in the year.

Joao Florencio is a lecturer at the University of Exeter.

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.

Students have been showing their solidarity by joining us, and later today we’ll start a series of teach-outs with a panel discussion on “What is wrong with our university,” the first of many events aimed at staff, students, and members of the local community.

This is the time for us to rethink what a university is, what we want it to become, and what kind of world-leading education and research we wish to provide for the future.

If you are involved or affected today, get in touch via our form or with the details at the top of this page and we’ll continue to highlight some of your stories as part of our coverage.

Updated

If you’re not entirely sure why university staff are striking today - here is a useful explainer:

Why are university staff striking?

University staff who are members of the University and College Union are angry at proposed changes to their pensions, which they argue could leave them up to £10,000 a year worse off when they retire. UCU say this would result in a loss more than £200,000 over the course of a retirement for a typical member of staff. Universities UK wants to change the Universities Superannuation Scheme from a defined benefit scheme – giving a guaranteed retirement income – to a defined contribution scheme, which would mean pensions would be subject to changes in the stock market. The union says young lecturers would be worst affected, with some losing up to half their pensions.

What is the argument for the changes?

Universities UK says its pension scheme has a £6bn deficit and it have a legal duty to put in place a credible plan to tackle it by this summer. Without reform, pensions contributions would have to rise steeply – and would mean spending cuts in other areas such as teaching, student support and research. Universities UK says that even after the changes the scheme would compare well with employer contributions double the private sector average.

What about students?

About 80,000 students at 30 of the universities affected have signed petitions. Many are supportive of striking staff but are demanding compensation for the hours of tuition they will miss because of the strikes. Students in England pay £9,250 a year, and have rights under consumer law. Whether these rights apply to industrial disputes is untested. 

MP pulls out of Leeds University event

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”.

Hamilton has withdrawn from the British Foreign Policy Group panel due to take place on the day at the University of Leeds. In a statement he said:

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.

Sussex: Students attempt to stop bus crossing the picket line

Things are heating up, reports Haroon Siddique, with students in Sussex attempting to block the path of buses trying to get on campus.

Updated

Tonia Novitz professor in Law at Britol University with her son Kris (who is off school due to strike action by teachers) outside the Wills Memorial building, Bristol.
Tonia Novitz professor in Law at Britol University with her son Kris (who is off school due to strike action by teachers) outside the Wills Memorial building, Bristol. Photograph: Stephen Shepherd/Stephen Shepherd photographer

Tonia Novitz, professor of Labour law and deputy picket supervisor.

“We are witnessing a steady deterioration in academic terms and conditions of employment. A couple of years ago our pension terms were completely changed from a final salary to a defined benefit pension and now we’re being told it has to be changed again within 18 months to a defined contributions scheme, which means for new members of staff they have no guaranteed income on retirement. They have to bear the risk of any investment entirely themselves. I’ve accrued 20 years of pension and I will apparently keep that but younger colleagues will get absolutely nothing on retirement and about £10,000 less a year than they would otherwise have got.

“In many ways the older staff are going out on strike in support of our younger colleagues and for what this is going to mean for the teaching profession. There are no longer incentives to be university lecturers. That means we will lose some of the most skilled and valuable staff. It really is the erosion and marketisation of higher education. A lot of universities including Bristol don’t want to take any risks on pensions. They want each member of academic staff to bear the risks. That’s unacceptable.

“We want Universities UK to go into mediation. As soon as they do that we stop the strike. We have a lot of students supporting us. They are very cross with the university. In the law school we have about 100 academic teaching staff. We have about 77 union members so we’re expecting that about three quarters of classes will be cancelled. We can’t reschedule classes. Hopefully it won’t be too difficult for the students in that they are missing the last seminars and tutorials of the academic year. When they sit their exams they won’t be equipped to answer those questions. But we’re hoping that a big mobilisation now will make employers understand how seriously we’re taking this dispute.”

Updated

Sussex university: 'All we are actually asking for is for the management to come back to the table'

My colleague Haroon Siddique is in Brighton, and has sent this dispatch:

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.

“It’s being driven by the very rich vice-chancellors, they are being very greedy and they are acting like Roman emperors.”

Manchester university staff: 'The idea that we don’t care about our students is just nonsense'

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.

“But we accepted it ultimately. A lot of people were afraid that it was the thin end of the wedge ... and that has proved to be the case. Now a line has to be drawn.”

He said that, on the whole, his students had been remarkably supportive of the action: “I think they understand this as part and parcel of the wider marketisation of higher education that they are victims of themselves.”

Nimmo is sympathetic to the calls from some students for compensation following the strike action. “They’ve been turned into consumers against their will ... I imagine it does raise all sorts of questions about consumer protection law. I think the universities are in a very vulnerable position.”

Also standing on the picket line, professor of economics Daniel Rigby explained that the projected USS pensions deficit was based a worst-case scenario where every university in the scheme went bust. “The USS is linked to tens of organisations and universities. They are not all going to go bust. That is a ridiculous scenario to base your expectations on.”

Rigby described this approach as “reckless prudence” and “extreme de-risking”. “What this scheme is doing is transferring all of the risk from the universities onto the members,” he said.

“The people who are on strike today put in hours way beyond what they are paid in order to deliver the teaching that they do. No one works a 35 or 40 hour week that I know of, so the idea that we don’t care about the teaching and learning of our students is just nonsense.”

He said he hadn’t experienced any hostility from students. “I just explain to them what it’s about and that i’m very sorry and we want a negotiated solution.”

Updated

Student support of university staff

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.

Picket line in Bristol

My colleague Steve Morris is on the university staff picket line at Bristol University

Not a huge amount of criticism of the strike out there, but here is a little smattering

Poll: three-fifths of students support strike

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

· Support was stronger in universities affected by the strikes (66% from students in striking universities compared with 58% from those in non-striking universities)

· Half of students (50%) blamed the university employers for the dispute that is leading to strike action

· Just 2% of students said they blamed university staff for the strikes. One in five (20%) said staff and universities were equally to blame

· Only one in 20 (5%) said they disagreed with calls for both sides to return to the negotiating table

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said:

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.

The universities’ refusal to negotiate with us has caused this mess and they owe it to students to start negotiating properly. We are happy to meet directly or through a mediator, as suggested by the National Union of Students.

Picket lines form in Manchester

My colleague Frances Perraudin has just arrived at the picket line outside the Manchester University student union.

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.

Earlier this month Manchester Central MP and former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell pulled out of a lecture at the University of Manchester that she was supposed to give today after realising that it clashed with the first day of the strikes.

In a statement, she said: “I was due to give an annual lecture at the university on the day of the strike, but I have informed the university that I won’t be attending. I don’t cross picket lines and my attendance would send the wrong signal. I hope that Universities UK will get back round the table with the UCU to resolve this dispute.”

In 2014, the then-shadow education secretary and historian Tristram Hunt was forced to defend his decision to cross a picket line at the Queen Mary University of London in order to deliver a lecture to students taking his “Marx, Engels and the making of Marxism” unit. Hunt said: “I support the right to strike for those who have balloted to picket. I have chosen not to join the strike”. He added that “his personal commitment remained to the students”.

Among the various petitions started by students demanding compensation for the impact strike action will have on their studies, is this oneon from Manchester university student Melis Royer. It has so far received nearly 6,000 signatures.
Explaining her reasons for starting the petition she says that students stand in support of the strike and “in solidarity with our tutors and lecturers alike”, but that “this support does not overshadow the serious disruption this will cause to our studies”.

“We, as students of the University of Manchester, demand a minimum of £300 of compensation for every student who loses contact time due to the upcoming strike action from the 22nd of February to the 16th of March 2018, with talks already suggesting a continuation of this strike should no change occur in this time.

… we judge £300 to be a reasonable demand of the £9000 annual tuition fee that we already pay to this university, given the anticipated lecture and seminar cancellations during such a crucial period of the semester.”

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn supports striking university staff

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.

“So I join staff and students in calling for the employers to commit now to meaningful negotiations, through Acas if necessary, to resolve this dispute.

Updated

University staff explain why they are striking

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.

This eloquent blog post from an anonymous university lecturer is also worth a read:

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.

Updated

Staff at 64 UK universities begin two-day strike

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.

The industrial action is expected to affect at least 1 million students and some of the UK’s most prestigious universities, including Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Durham, Exeter and Imperial College London.

For background reading, my colleague Sally Weale’s piece looks at the tens of thousands of students calling for compensation over the University and College Union industrial action. You can also find out why some students are backing it.

Last month, UCU members voted overwhelmingly to strike. The union estimates that 575,000 teaching hours will be lost over the next four weeks.

We’ll have reporters on the ground in Sussex, Bristol and Manchester, but we would love to hear from you about your take on today’s industrial action.

Contact me on @lexytopping or alexandra.topping@theguardian.com if you’d like to contribute.

Updated

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