Do you support Queen’s and Ulster University staff industrial strike?

With the University and College Union strikes underway, some students have called for the University to reimburse them for teaching affected by strike action.

Staff fear changes could cost an average lecturer £200,000 over the course of their retirement.

The initial two-day strike, which is to be held on Thursday 22 February and Friday 23 February 2018, will take place across 64 national universities and include picket lines at university entrances as well as various rallies.

At the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) scheme, which now have a £6bn deficit that it is asking lecturers to shave off their pensions to plug, BillGalvin’s pay package had risen £484,000 to £566,000, a USS spokeswoman said. The original proposal was for members to move into the USS’ defined contribution (DC) element, Retirement Income Builder.

Academics at both Medway and Canterbury campuses began picketing at 8am this morning, with many lecturers participating in the strike being joined by students who stood alongside their teachers in solidarity over the changes.

However, some students went so far as to calculate how much of their £9,000+ fee would be wasted because of cancellations of lectures, as this student did: “I pay £9,000 a year for my education, meaning each lecture/seminar hour is worth approximately £55 of my time”.

As workers they deserve decent pensions and working conditions and any attack on those conditions is also an attack on the quality of education that students receive. If the university can demonstrate that it did all that it reasonably could to avoid disruption, the courts are more likely to find that the provision is enforceable.

‘It is staggering that the universities have refused to engage with the union and a real insult to staff and to students.

“Students and staff have shared interests and we shouldn’t be pitting them against each other”.

He accepted that while there will be “some disruption” this is not expected to be significant and there are plans in place to reschedule any cancelled lectures. The petition, which has reached over 600 signatures, comes as some students voice concerns over the strike’s disproportionate impact on worldwide and MPhil students.

It also says: ‘We have sought independent expert advice at each stage of this process, but we are open to the possibility that we have not considered every possible angle. Abbie Cheeseman, a third-year history undergraduate at Royal Holloway, University of London, who supports the strikes, told BuzzFeed News.

Parts of that university’s research computing service could be affected because anything that requires human intervention “will be hampered by these strikes”, Owain Kenway, who runs a computing team at UCL, wrote on Twitter. The willingness of staff to lose 14 days of pay “tells you everything you need to know”, adds Hunt.

UCU members have planned a full programme, starting with Professor Gurminder Bhambra’s “In defence of the public university” at 13:30 on Thursday in Mandela Hall.

Since the wave of strikes in 2006, universities have become well versed in handling disruption caused by industrial action.

“It’s unacceptable that we are being caught in the crossfire”. Tens of thousands of students across dozens of universities have started petitions calling for financial compensation for missed lectures and seminars.