This is to bring you up-to-date with the latest situation regarding the industrial action involving some members of staff at Kent who are members of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU). The dispute is over proposed changes to the Universities’ Superannuation Scheme (USS), one of the pension schemes provided by universities for their employees.

This a national dispute concerning a large pension scheme involving many UK higher education employers, whose interests are represented by Universities UK (UUK). Although, we are not free to resolve this dispute on our own, or with our own staff, we have been lobbying hard to encourage those involved to return to discussions to reach a resolution.

Therefore, we welcome the announcement that UCU and UUK have agreed to involve the national conciliation service ACAS in the next stage of their talks to help reach an agreement.

In the light of this recent news, the University has made an offer to all members of staff who have taken industrial action over the past five days. If they agree to suspend their action and now work normally, we will not deduct any pay for lost working time. We are aware that some of those taking industrial action have described this as a bribe, and regret the use of such language in response to an offer which was made in good faith and which is in line with our ongoing commitment to minimise the impact of this action on our students.

We have now heard from the local UCU that this offer has been rejected outright but we will continue to keep our offer on the table. Our aim is to ensure our students are not disadvantaged by this industrial action and, as such, we have a duty to try to move this situation forward. A continuation of this action can only have an increasingly negative impact on our students.

We truly hope that the national discussions lead to a resolution in the very near future. There is no doubt that this is a difficult situation for all concerned and, while we have the greatest sympathy with those who have concerns about the future of the pension scheme, the interests of our students remain at the forefront of our activities.

In the meantime, all students should work on the basis that your studies will continue as normal, unless told otherwise. This means aiming to attend scheduled teaching, completing and submitting assessments by the relevant deadlines, and continuing to plan for any examinations.

Further information, including FAQs, is available here (https://www.kent.ac.uk/academic/industrial-action/index.html).