The latest pay offer made to staff at UK universities is “at the very limit” of what the sector can afford and will not be going any higher, according to employers.
Raj Jethwa, chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea), said the sector will not be able to increase pay any further than what is already on the table despite the looming threat of 18 days of strike action in February and March.
Ucea’s pay offer increased from between 4 and 7 per cent to between 5 and 8 per cent at the latest negotiating meeting but unions have signalled their intention to reject this, saying it “does not go far enough”.
Instead, they have called for an uplift of 2 per cent above RPI inflation, which hit 13.4 per cent in December.
