Leader of the Liberal Democrat party Vince Cable is urging the Universities Minister Sam Gyimah to intervene in proposed changes to lecturers’ pensions.

In a letter written to the Universities Minister, Cable highlighted that the proposed changes could see lecturers around £10,000 a year worse off in a retirement. Younger lecturers would be the “worst hit”, he said, with an estimated loss of up to half of their total retirement income.

Cable acknowledged that while the scheme carries a considerable deficit of around £6bn to 7.5bn, “this does not necessitate the drastic action being taken– particularly given there are question marks over how the deficit has been calculated”.

It has been noted that the proposed changes to the pension scheme has had an effect on both lecturers and their students. Cable outlined: “Lecturers are not well paid; the reward for their hard work has largely been in the form of relatively generous packages, including a defined benefit pension.”

And, as a result of Universities UK’s unwillingness to compromise on its plans, the academic study of more than one million students will be interrupted, Cable said.

Concluding, Cable suggested that the government must act to underwrite the Universities Superannuation Scheme, in order to alleviate concerns, de-risk the scheme and ultimately provide staff with guarantees that their pension will be protected and delivered at the expected level.

“Not only would this provide the fund with the certainty the more fiscally conservative institutions are worried about, it would also put scheme in line with universities set up after 1992. One part of the university sector should not be treated differently to another,” Cable added.

Last week lecturers across the UK began 14 days of strikes to oppose planned changes to their pensions.

Universities UK is to hold talks tomorrow, 27 February 2018. While the University and College Union has said it will be attending, it has noted that unless employers are prepared to talk about the decision to slash pensions, then it does not see how the dispute can be resolved.

Nonetheless, UUK has said in a statement that “talks would not re-open the Joint Negotiating Committee decision made on 23 January”, regarding the pension cuts. In response, UCU has said it is disappointed with UUK, which has ignored Gyimah’s calls for talks to be without preconditions.

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Because this is so serious for students and for staff we will of course attend. I am however very concerned that UUK has explicitly ruled out discussing the imposed changes that have caused the strikes.

“The universities minister was very clear that he wanted talks without preconditions and we hope UUK will reconsider his words before we meet on Tuesday. We remain committed to serious negotiations aimed at resolving this dispute.”

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