Five UK universities tell staff they can’t afford pay rises

At least five UK universities have told staff they will not be paying them the sector-wide uplift that was due in August for almost a year.

Unions have rejected the final employer pay offer of 1.4 per cent for most staff as “insulting” – and are threatening to strike in response – but the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea) has instructed members to implement the increase anyway.

Staff at some institutions will not get even get the small rise due to them because of a clause in the negotiations that allows for a delay for up to 11 months if a university is facing financial difficulties.

Amid the financial turmoil of the past few years, increasing numbers of institutions have opted for a deferral.

Last year Ucea said that record numbers had used the clause – although that year’s offer of between 2.5 and 5.7 per cent was significantly above this year’s offer.

Times Higher Education contacted all members of Universities UK to ask whether they would be implementing this year’s pay uplift.

Five universities confirmed that they have deferred the pay award, while a number have said they will make a decision once they have greater clarity on student numbers and their financial position.

The University of Dundee, one of the institutions worst affected by the financial crunch, was perhaps unsurprisingly among those deferring.

The University of Kent  – which recently announced a partial merger with the University of Greenwich –  has also delayed the pay award for the third year in a row.

It said it would review this decision “in the coming months when there is a clearer picture of student recruitment figures for the academic year”.

Brunel University of London confirmed it would be deferring wage increases, while Coventry University said it has also chosen to defer the pay award as it seeks to achieve a “break even position” by the end of the financial year.

Swansea University said it had “for the first time…taken the difficult decision to defer the implementation of the nationally agreed 2025–26 pay award”, after it announced earlier this year that it was looking to save £30 million.

Raj Jethwa, chief executive of Ucea, said it was “not surprising” that some institutions are deferring this year’s pay uplift while others are still considering the decision, adding that the pay offer was “the only prudent option open to employers”.

“We made it clear that this full and final pay offer would be financially challenging for most of our HE institutions and that sector finances had deteriorated still further since the pay round began,” he said.

A number of universities have said that they are waiting to confirm their student numbers before committing to a decision, including Lincoln, which said it would make a decision later in the autumn.

Others yet to make up their mind include Bangor, Bournemouth, Plymouth Marjon, Aberdeen, Bradford, Buckingham and Cumbria.

Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of Worcester, which last year deferred the pay award, did not confirm whether they would be paying the uplift but Sheffield Hallam University, which faced staff strikes over its decision to defer last year, said it would be honouring the increase this year.

Long-term trends for universities paying wage increases are shifting, said Gregor Gall, an industrial relations expert and visiting professor at the universities of Glasgow and Leeds, who noted that “although the ability to defer the nationally agreed pay rise has existed for a number of years, until now it has only been used sparingly by members of the Ucea”.