SCOTTISH students are facing disruption to exams as a universities union warned of more walkouts in an escalating row over pensions.
The University and College Union (UCU) announced a further 14 days of strikes designed to target the examination period between April and June if there is no resolution.
Talks are continuing between the union and Universities UK (UUK) through the conciliation service Acas.
UCU said there could be strikes at 65 institutions, including many in Scotland, and that the union would gather information to see when the next wave of strikes would be most effective at different universities.
But UUK, which represents the universities, said it was disappointed by the continued action and described current talks as serious and constructive.
The dispute centres on proposals put forward by UUK in January which would see the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) move from a “defined benefit” scheme, which gives workers a guaranteed income in their retirement, to become a “defined contribution” scheme, in which pensions are subject to fluctuations in the stock market.
UUK maintains that the pension scheme has a deficit of more than £6 billion that cannot be ignored. UCU argues that the current proposals would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “The union would prefer dialogue and I have given my personal commitment to Acas UCU is serious about reaching deal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here