Pay must be sustainable for institutions rich and poor, v-cs say

Vice-chancellors are holding firm in resisting demands for an inflation-busting pay rise for UK university staff, with even those who admit they may be able to pay more adamant that whatever is agreed must be affordable for the sector as a whole.

As sector unions continued with 18 days of nationwide strike action after rejecting an offer of wage rises of between 5 per cent and 8 per cent, Times Higher Education asked institutional leaders whether they would be prepared to go beyond what the Universities and Colleges Employers Association had put on the table.

The leader of a large post-92 university and the head of small, specialist institution both responded to say the latest offer was “at the limit” of affordability and they would struggle to pay the salary bill as it was, let alone go further.

The vice-chancellor of a medium-sized modern university said they might be able to pay a “fraction more” but recognised that many others could not, as tuition fees in England remain frozen and the Westminster government looks unwilling to provide further financial support.

They said they feared more sector jobs could come under threat if the pay offer went higher. A number of institutions have already announced plans to make redundancies, with annual accounts revealing several are in deficit.

UCU has made the £40 billion worth of reserves held by the sector a cornerstone of its campaign for higher wages and better working conditions. More than 30,000 of its members voted in an online poll held by the union on the latest offer, with 80 per cent rejecting it. General secretary Jo Grady said staff had “seen through” vice-chancellors’ “pleas of poverty”.

But doubts have been expressed about the ability of all institutions to afford the union’s call for a pay offer of 2 per cent above inflation – equivalent to about 13 per cent. One member at the crisis-hit University of East Anglia said they felt the union was increasingly only representing richer institutions that are in surplus and they were having to take to the picket lines to demand a substantial pay rise in the knowledge that their institution could not afford salaries as they stand.

Nottingham Trent University has taken the rare step of opting out of the national pay review process altogether for the past two years and has therefore avoided strike action. For 2022-23, it instead awarded staff a minimum uplift of 3.5 per cent – slightly higher than the national 3 per cent – as well as a one-off payment and additional leave. Talks on 2023-24 are yet to begin.

But vice-chancellors who spoke to THE were still supportive of collective bargaining. The head of a large Russell Group institution and an executive at a university with a sizeable endowment both said the settlement needed to be sustainable for all and therefore they were fully supportive of the current offer.

Leaders said they were taking steps to support staff outside the national negotiating process but pointed out that the average wage for a staff member of £54,249 costs universities in the region of £75,000 each, once pensions and national insurance contributions are factored in.

Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said the institution was in “complete support” of Ucea’s position.

“It has negotiated in good faith and, in the financial circumstances many institutions find themselves in, has put a good offer on the table…For the sake of students, whose education is being disrupted once again, I hope that the unions will bring their action to an early end and accept this reasonable settlement,” he said.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com