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Jo Grady, General Secretary of the University and College Union, told Sky News that she was “disappointed” in having to be forced to join the fourth day of picket lines today but said pay must rise for lecturers amid a cost-of-living crisis. As of Monday staff at 68 UK universities will ditch lecture theatres for picket lines, joining 44 universities and over 50,000 staff already taking part this week.

Monday was the first day in 10 of such action being taken by the University and College Union (UCU).

Speaking to Kay Burley, Ms Grady said: “This is over pay which has fallen by twenty percent in the last five years, it is about a 35-percent cut to stage guaranteed pension.

“But is also about working conditions, we are seeing an absolute explosion of workloads at universities.”

The Union representative went on to reference recent reports which suggest “half of staff are showing signs of probable depression” amid plummeting pay and standards in UK higher education.

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She also slammed UK institutions for “making serious misuse of zero-hour contracts” which she claimed has seen over “66,000 staff” on some form of casualised or typical contract, with these numbers rising.

Ms Grady added how all of this comes amid a backdrop of soaring 7.8 percent inflation and a cost of living crisis, with staff saying enough is enough.

She stressed: “Staff have moved heaven and earth throughout this pandemic to do everything they can for students, staff deserve so much better!”

Ms Grady noted how this week 44 universities have been on strike, but from money that will shoot to 68 when the pay dispute kicks in.

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The mood on picket lines is “frustrated” but upbeat, with staff and students “standing together” as she claimed 73 percent of students support the strikes.

She added: “People are just as determined as ever, this isn’t a sector that is cash strapped… if we look at the total income across the sector last year, it was 49.1 billion – it has reserves of 46.8 billion.”

The Union representative said the issues around pay have been a “strategic decision that university managers are taking” and that while “nobody wants to be on the picket lines” striking is the only option.

But despite this, Ms Grady’s comments were followed by furious York University student Harry Baldwin who hammered his lecturers for taking students “for a ride”.

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He said: “Students at the moment are quite angry, quite disappointed, and they feel like they’re being taken for a ride almost. We have been through such large amounts of disruption now for a long period of time, the strikes, the Covid pandemic and we are disappointed by it of course.”

Mr Baldwin added how students “are missing out on large amounts of learning” but there is also a personal element to the strikes as well, which knows only too well.

He explained how strikes have meant he was unable to see his dying nan because lectures did not get back to an email he sent requesting a change to his timetable.

The York student also hammered online learning over in-person learning despite paying the same amount, he stressed students are not getting the same service “whatsoever” as they would in person.

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