The possibility of strikes at 61 universities has become much more likely after talks over the Universities Superannuation Scheme as unions failed to reach an agreement, the University and College Union has said.

Following talks regarding the university pension scheme, representatives from UCU and Universities UK noted that industrial action may take place following disappointing talks and the dismissal of further talks regarding changes being imposed on USS members.

The hearing saw the chair side with the employers’ representatives and plans to move from a guaranteed income defined benefit scheme to a defined contribution scheme.

UCU announced yesterday that its members had overwhelmingly backed strike action. The union will not decide the start dates for a series of strikes at 61 universities next month, it has confirmed.

As part of the industrial action, UCU members will work to contract, resuse to cover classes and will not reschedule those lost to strike action. Members at the seven universities that failed to meet the 50 per cent turnout threshold to allow them to take action will be balloted again.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Staff will feel utterly betrayed by their leaders. We are disappointed at how talks ended today, particularly after UUK suggested yesterday that it wanted more talks to avoid strikes. Universities must be on notice that unless there are dramatic changes in their negotiators’ position then strike action will be arriving on campus next month.

“There is much talk of a crisis of leadership in higher education at the moment, especially after the recent vice-chancellor pay and perks scandals. Now is the time for university leaders to recognise the scale of this problem, how angry their staff are and to work with us to avoid widespread disruption in universities.”

In November, University of Warwick vice-chancellor, professor Stuart Croft warned in a blog post that the proposed changes to USS would have “serious consequences” for affected universities. Findings by independent experts First Actuarial showed that University staff starting work now could be as much as £200,000 worse off in retirement under the new proposals for the USS.

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