MORE than a million university students across Britain and Northern Ireland are to be affected by strike action today - the first in a series of walkouts.
An unprecedented level of industrial action is planned over proposed changes to lecturers' pensions.
It will begin with a two-day walkout, affecting over 60 universities.
Staff fear pension changes could cost an average lecturer £200,000 over the course of their retirement.
University employers have said changes are necessary.
Officials from the University and College Union (UCU) are meeting on March 2 to discuss the response from universities to the industrial action and warned that if the dispute is not settled then "nothing is off the table".
The union has a mandate to take action until July 19, which covers the exams period. It means that institutions could potentially face industrial action during this important point of the academic year.
Other action is likely to include members working to their contracts, meaning refusing to cover classes, reschedule classes lost on strike days or undertake voluntary duties.
Hundreds of thousands of university workers are understood to be enrolled in the USS pensions scheme, mainly those working at older institutions established before 1992.
UCU Northern Ireland official Katharine Clarke said members had been left with no alternative but to strike to defend the pensions they had paid into over the course of their employment.
Dr Fabian Schuppert, UCU president at Queen's, said even at this late stage, he was urging universities to work with the union to reach an agreement.
"Nobody wants to disrupt students' learning - it's the most difficult thing for us to contemplate: lecturers at Queen's are committed to their students' education and we hate being on strike. But our employers have thus far failed to compromise," he said.
"Two rounds of cuts in pension benefits since 2011 have already left university lecturers and support staff with pensions worth less than those of school teachers and academics in the sector's other pension scheme.
"We've also had to put up with escalating stress in recent years, due to impossible workloads, excessively ambitious academic standards, and increasing pressure to bring in unrealistic amounts of cash in research grants. All of this is eroding the traditional focus of the university on teaching and research. It is also eroding staff confidence."
The students unions at Queen's and UU have both voted to support their striking lecturers and will be attending a rally today. Picket lines will be held at every main campus entrance on each strike day.
Queen's UCU is also hosting a programme of free lectures open to the public at the Crescent Arts Centre on all strike days.
A Universities UK spokesman said: "We hope that employees recognise that changes are necessary to put the scheme on a secure footing, and that the proposed strike action will only serve to unfairly disrupt students' education."
Here is the list of 64 universities expected to be affected by the University and College Union (UCU) strike over the next month.
57 universities affected by strike action from Thursday February 22 (week one):
- Aberdeen, University of
- Aberystwyth University
- Aston University
- Bangor University
- Bath, University of
- Birkbeck College, University of London
- Bristol, University of
- Brunel University
- Cambridge, University of
- Cardiff University
- City, University of London
- Courtauld Institute of Art
- Cranfield University
- Dundee, University of
- Durham University
- East Anglia, University of
- Essex, University of
- Exeter, University of
- Glasgow, University of
- Goldsmiths, University of London
- Heriot-Watt University
- Hull, University of
- Imperial College London
- Institute of Education
- Keele University
- Kent, University of
- Lancaster, University of
- Leeds, University of
- Leicester, University of
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
- Liverpool, University of
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Loughborough University
- Manchester, University of
- Newcastle University
- Nottingham, University of
- Open University
- Oxford, University of
- Queen's University Belfast
- Reading, University of
- Royal Holloway, University of London
- Royal Veterinary College, University of London
- Salford, University of
- Senate House, University of London
- Sheffield, University of
- SOAS, University of London
- Southampton, University of
- St Andrews, University of
- Strathclyde, University of
- Surrey, University of
- Sussex, University of
- University College London
- Scottish Association for Marine Science at the University of the Highlands and Islands
- Ulster University
- University of Wales
- University of Warwick
- University of York
- Four universities joining in week two:
- King's College London
- Queen Mary University of London
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Stirling
- Three universities joining in week three:
- Ruskin College
- University of Bradford
- St George's, University of London
