Strikes could be hitting 41 unis as UCU members vote to back new industrial action

We could be in for a repeat of last year's lecturer strikes, as uni staff have voted to back strike action.

Members of the University and College Union working at unis voted in favour of industrial action amid dissatisfaction over pensions, pay, and working conditions.

After the disruption of last year's, universities offered students tuition fee refunds, made graduation free, and in some cases were forced to pay out over £1,00 to students.

79 per cent of UCU members voted to strike over changes to the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), a pensions scheme.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "The results can only be interpreted as clear support for strike action over pensions, pay and working conditions. The ballots reflect just how unhappy and angry staff are at the state of higher education in the UK.

"It is incredibly frustrating that we had to ballot members again, but universities only have themselves to blame after failing to address falling real-terms pay and for refusing to deal with casualisation, workloads and the rising cost of USS pensions.

"Universities now have to come back to us prepared to work seriously to address these problems. If they choose to ignore this message from their staff then strike action looks inevitable."

41 universities met the turnout threshold for strike action in the USS ballot and are eligible to strike. They are:

Aston University

Bangor University

Cardiff University

University of Durham

Heriot-Watt University

Loughborough University

Newcastle University

The Open University

The University of Aberdeen

The University of Bath

The University of Dundee

The University of Leeds

The University of Manchester

The University of Sheffield

University of Nottingham

The University of Stirling

University College London

The University of Birmingham

The University of Bradford

The University of Bristol

The University of Cambridge

The University of East Anglia

The University of Edinburgh

The University of Exeter

The University of Essex

The University of Glasgow

The University of Lancaster

The University of Leiceste

City, University of London

Goldsmiths College

Queen Mary University of London

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College

The University of Reading

The University of Southampton

The University of St Andrews

Courtauld Institute of Art

The University of Strathclyde

Scottish Association of Marine Science

The University of Warwick

The University of York

The University of Wales