Nottingham students are occupying Trent Building in solidarity with the on going strikes.

The University and College Union (UCU) confirmed in February that University of Nottingham would be hit with a further five days of strike action before Easter.

This came after lecturers and university staff at University of Nottingham had already been on strike for a total of 10 days last month.

The strikes began today and are scheduled to carry on until Friday 1st April.

This is not the first time students have occupied a university building, last month students occupied three buildings across University Park Campus in support of striking university staff.

A spokesperson for the University of Nottingham said: “We are monitoring the situation to ensure the protest is conducted peacefully and safely. Whilst this is a national dispute, action is already being taken locally that would address some of the grievances expressed in the industrial action by UCU members.

“Nottingham is already piloting a model of Graduate Teaching Assistant contracts to end the use of casual contracts, and the expectation is that this model will be extended to many more, if not all, Schools for 2022/23.

“The national pay award under dispute is combined with local pay increases and rewards paid by the university which means that a significant proportion of our staff received pay increases in August of between 3.5% and 4.5%. We are also working to actively reduce our gender and ethnic pay gaps.

“Universities UK proposals, backed up by £1.3 billion support from universities, have been approved by the Joint Negotiating Committee to provide an affordable and sustainable solution to the USS pension scheme’s 2020 valuation alongside opportunities to explore lower cost flexible options, alternative scheme designs, and a review of the scheme’s governance.”

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