LECTURERS at dozens of British universities will down mortarboards today as they picket graduation ceremonies and open days in protest at an “insulting” 1.1 per cent pay offer.

The Universities and College Union (UCU) is calling rolling strikes after facing years of pay freezes and below-inflation rises — effectively pay cuts.

Reps are threatening to escalate to a marking boycott in the autumn if bosses fail to cough up a better offer.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Our strike action is a result of the employers’ failure to deal with the declining real-terms pay of university staff or tackle the problems of growing numbers of zero-hours contracts and the persistent gender pay gap.

“Members have been left with no alternative but to take this action.”

Today’s walkouts will affect 33 universities including University College London, Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham.

Staff will walk out at Bangor University tomorrow, with University of Cumbria staff following on Thursday.

UCU says members have suffered a real-terms pay cut of 14.5 per cent since 2009. Meanwhile, vice-chancellors have seen their salaries grow by an astonishing 6.1 per cent.

The union is also calling on universities to address the gender pay gap and the increasing casualisation of universities.

Female academics are paid an average of £6,103 less a year than their male counterparts, while 49 per cent of university teachers are on insecure contracts.

Universities also reduced the proportion of income they spend on staff from 56.6 per cent in 2010 to 54.9 per cent in 2015.But their total cash reserves have rocketed by 72 per cent and now stand at over £21 billion.

The Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association originally offered a 1 per cent pay rise and increased this to just 1.1 per cent after early negotiations.

UCU had also planned a day of strike action to target the “clearing” process of late university applications in August, but this was called off following a vote at the union’s conference last month.