University strikes turned violent as protesters stormed an academic building to demand that students in the lecture theatre join the walk out.
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The strike, organised by the University and College Union (UCU), consists of 14 dates between February 22nd and March 15th.
88% of UCU members backed strike action, with 57% of Union members at Kent voting in favour of the motion.
The two organisations have fallen out over proposed changes to the pensions scheme.
Staff members at the Queen Mary University of London have been told that investigations may be conducted against them if they begin to award average marks that are below a 2:1 level.
Speaking to Eagle Radio, Hermione said: “It’s focusing around the fact that the key people of this institution are the staff and students”.
Students stand alongside their lecturers on the picket line.
His comments follow those of universities minister Sam Gyimah, who warned UUK and the UCU on the eve of the walkouts that they must resolve the “damaging and avoidable impasse”.
Following a series of over 35 consultation meetings, a joint negotiating committee of Universities UK and the Universities and Colleges Union, representing the collective employers and members respectively, voted through a proposal.
More than 14,000 students at the university could be affected.
“But to be honest I sort of understand because I think that for your pension to be cut that drastically is quite a big deal”.
Nonetheless, the strike action that is proposed for the coming weeks will only harm students, many of whom feel a great deal of sympathy for the predicament of their lecturers.
Responding to criticism that Oxford and Cambridge colluded in efforts to push through the changes which would leave academics up to £10,000 a year worse off, Toope added: ‘I want to assure you categorically that there has been no collusion between Cambridge and Oxford to undermine the scheme’.
Universities UK said rising future pension costs have created a €6.9 billion deficit. UCU have said that the strike is essential to protect the right to receive a fair pension. The picket lines were peaceful, with no reports of disturbances so far.
“One of our marchers was assaulted by a student when we disrupted the lecture”, the Sussex Supports the Strike group wrote in a statement on their Facebook page.
The UUK’s response, meanwhile, has been critical of the UCU, claiming that this industrial action is being targeted directly at the students.
And Florence says she’s signed a petition, like many other students across the country, calling for the university to partially refund their fees for lost teaching hours.
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Conrad Whitcroft-White, a first-year politics student at York, said in an interview with Palatinate: “Universities need to take our needs into account when it comes to situations where our education isn’t being provided”.
