A THIRD wave of strike action is sweeping through universities across Britain this week as lecturers step up their campaigns over pay, pensions and working conditions.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at 40 universities are set to walk out on strike today for five days and will be joined by two more institutions on Wednesday. Another 27 will strike for five days next week.

The strikes involve 50,000 lecturers and will affect one million students, the UCU said.

University employers have forced through Universities Superannuation Scheme pension cuts, which the UCU says will see 35 per cent slashed from a typical member’s guaranteed retirement income.

UCU is demanding that employers revoke their cuts and re-enter negotiations.

The union also says lecturers’ pay has fallen 35 per cent behind inflation since 2009 and that schoolteachers are now paid £9,000 a year more than lecturers.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Vice-chancellors across the UK have the power to end these disputes.

“The money is there to pay staff properly, tackle punishing working conditions and reverse pension cuts that will devastate retirement incomes. 

“Instead, university bosses are choosing to sit on reserves worth tens of billions of pounds and make their own staff suffer. That’s why we are out on picket lines yet again.”

Regulator, the Office for Students, said that in 2020 the average salary for university vice-chancellors was £269,000.

In Scotland, lecturers at 11 universities are taking strike action. Tomorrow UCU is set to stage a rally at 1pm at City Square in Dundee.

A Universities UK spokesperson, on behalf of scheme employers, said: “Taking university staff out on strike again will not remove the need to reform the scheme to ensure it remains affordable for members and employers.”