St Andrews academics vote for strike action

This Thursday academics at the University of St Andrews voted for another round of strike action over disputes on pay, pensions and working conditions.

The St Andrews turn-out was 58 per cent and, of those that voted, 84 per cent said yes to strike action.

St Andrews' academics, including Dr Kate Cross from the Psychology department, will be heading to picket lines to protest over treatment of academic staff.

This is the second round of strikes to affect St Andrews in the last three years and it could affect over one million students across the UK.

The university has not yet sent out a response to all students, but the staff newsletter sent out on Friday did reveal the full results. The letter confirmed that 'on the USS ballot, at St Andrews, 83.49 per cent (268) voted for strike action and 88.79 (285) for ASOS (action short of strike action)."

Head of the UCU, Dr Jo Grady, spoke to St Andrews' academics in September urging them to vote. She was retweeted by the St Andrews UCU page who have confirmed that they believe that the university has not gone far enough. Dr Grady said 'the decline of our pension scheme ends now'.

There has been no confirmation yet on how this will affect students but details are expected to be released in due course.