UK sector leaders have called for the government to review universities’ participation in the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS) ahead of a big hike in employer contributions that will increase staff costs by millions of pounds at a time of squeezed finances.
Raj Jethwa, the chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea), and Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, have written to the higher education minister Robert Halfon asking for “greater flexibility” around the requirement that post-92 universities offer the scheme to their academic staff.
From 1 April, employers’ contributions to the government-run TPS will increase by 5 percentage points in England and Wales to 28.68 per cent after a recalculation in the likely future cost of public sector pension obligations due to lower official growth forecasts. In Scotland, TPS rates will increase from 23 per cent to 26 per cent and in Northern Ireland they will go up from 25.1 per cent to 29.1 per cent.
The hikes come months after employer contributions in the other main higher education pension fund – the Universities Superannuation Scheme, used by older universities – dropped to 14.5 per cent.
