Students across the country are set to “suffer” three days of university strikes.

The University and College Union (UCU) strikes are in regards staff pay, pensions and ‘worsening working conditions’, with staff at nearly 60 universities across the country striking.

These strikes mean students will face further disruption to their education following 18 months of online learning due to the pandemic.

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Much of the strikes are focusing on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the pension fund used by university staff.

The UCU has said the USS’s recent valuation was "carried out at the start of the pandemic when global markets were crashing", therefore it would lower members' guaranteed retirement income by 35%.

The UCU is also demanding that university bosses address gender, ethnic, and disability pay gaps, end zero-hour contracts, track rising workloads and increase pay by £2,500.

Oxford Brookes University vice-chancellor Prof Alistair Fitt, speaking on behalf of the Employers Pension Forum, told BBC News the USS pension scheme was "very generous", although "too expensive" for many academics.

He said: "One of the things we're committed to doing is to try and make USS a little bit more flexible, and to try to give particularly young academics and young university staff a range of options.

"We're really disappointed that there are strikes now.

"I think our poor students have had enough over the past 18 months."

Earlier this month Professor Fitt warned that no change to the pensions scheme was “simply not an option”, as he said “ignoring the problem” and allowing contributions to rise to up to 56% of payroll to cover the deficit of the scheme – as originally suggested by the USS – would have “forced” institutions to close.

He said: "We're very sorry that once again the students might be about to suffer because the union does not agree with the way that pension schemes are run and regulated in this country.

“Now of course we respect the right of our union members to decide to take strike action, and we know that our colleagues won’t have done so lightly.

“But it really is the last thing that students want or need or deserve after the disruption caused by the previous industrial action and of course the Covid pandemic.”

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UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “It is deeply regrettable that staff have been forced into taking industrial action again, but sadly university bosses have shown little interest in negotiating in good faith and addressing the serious concerns of staff over falling pay, massive pension cuts, equality pay gaps and the rampant use of insecure contracts.

“The truth is that staff are asking for the bare minimum in a sector awash with money. But sadly, the only time vice chancellors seem to listen is when staff take action, and those leading our universities should not underestimate their determination to change this sector for the better.

“We are grateful to all the students who are supporting staff taking industrial action because they understand that staff working conditions are student learning conditions.

“Vice-chancellors now need to concentrate on asking themselves why strikes have become an annual occurrence and seek to resolve this dispute in order to avoid more needless disruption to learning.

“If they continue to ignore the modest demands of staff then we will be forced to take further industrial action in the new year, which even more branches will join.”

The UCU held a series of walkouts in 2019 and early 2020 over pensions, pay and conditions, which affected universities across the UK. There was also strike action in 2018 amid a row over pensions.

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