The Universities and College Union (UCU) has announced 14 days of strikes across 61 universities following a row over changes to pensions.

The strikes will start with a five day walkout either side of the weekend, commencing on Thursday 22 February, until Wednesday 28 February. This will be followed by four days of strikes between Monday 5 and Thursday 8 March and a full five day walk-out starting on Monday 12 March.

The industrial action was confirmed after 88 per cent of UCU members voted in favour of action over proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme on 18 January, and talks between the UCU and Universities UK (UUK) fell through on 23 January.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "Staff who have delivered the international excellence universities boast of are understandably angry at efforts to slash their pensions.

"They feel let down by vice-chancellors who seem to care more about defending their own pay and perks than the rights of their staff.

"Strike action on this scale has not been seen before on UK campuses, but universities need to know the full scale of the disruption they will be hit with if they refuse to sort this mess out.”

King’s College London, Queen Mary University, Edinburgh University and Sterling University will not take action in week one due to their academic calendar, but will then walk out for two days on 19 and 20 March.

Seven universities who did not meet the required 50 per cent turnout are being balloted again, closing on Friday 16 February.

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.

The research also suggested that lecturers who worked in post-1992 universities, or polytechnics, could lose out on as much as £385,000 if academics were signed up to the rival Teachers’ Pension Scheme, instead of USS.

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