UNIVERSITIES including Edge Hill, Liverpool and Hope will be hit by eight days of strikes by staff.

Members of the University and College Union from 60 institutions across the country will walk out in a dispute over working conditions and rising pension costs.

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In the region, the University of Liverpool, the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, Liverpool Hope University and Edge Hill University will be hit with eight days of strike action from Monday, November 25 through to Wednesday, December 4.

Last week UCU members backed strike action in ballots over both pensions, and pay and working conditions. The results mean that UCU members at 60 UK universities can take strike action later this month.

The union said universities had to respond positively and quickly if they wanted to avoid disruption before Christmas. The union says disputes centre on "changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme" and universities’ "failure to make improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads".

As well as eight strike days, union members will begin “action short of a strike” when they return to work. This involves things such as working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strike action.

At the University of Liverpool, members were polled over striking in defence of USS pensions and in the dispute about pay and conditions. Nearly three-quarters of members (74 per cent) polled backed strikes over pay and conditions and 82 per cent backed strikes over pensions.

UCU members at the other three institutions in the region are in a different pension scheme and were only balloted for strikes over pay and conditions. At Liverpool Hope University, 91 per cent of members polled backed strikes over pay and conditions.

At Edge Hill University 75 per cent of members polled backed strikes and at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, 71% of those who voted, voted for strikes.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "Strike action is a last resort, but staff have made it quite clear that enough is enough and universities can be in no doubt about the strength of feeling.

"The first wave of strikes will hit institutions later this month unless universities start talking to us seriously about how they are going to deal with rising pension costs and declining pay and conditions."

All UK universities affected by strike action from Monday, November 25:

1. Aston University

2. Bangor University

3. Cardiff University

4. University of Durham

5. Heriot-Watt University

6. Loughborough University

7. Newcastle University

8. The Open University

9. The University of Aberdeen

10. The University of Bath

11. The University of Dundee

12. The University of Leeds

13. The University of Manchester

14. The University of Sheffield

15. University of Nottingham

16. The University of Stirling

17. University College London

18. The University of Birmingham

19. The University of Bradford

20. The University of Bristol

21. The University of Cambridge

22. The University of Edinburgh

23. The University of Exeter

24. The University of Essex

25. The University of Glasgow

26. The University of Lancaster

27. The University of Leicester

28. City University

29. Goldsmiths College

30. Queen Mary University of London

31. Royal Holloway

32. The University of Reading

33. The University of Southampton

34. The University of St Andrews

35. Courtauld Institute of Art

36. The University of Strathclyde

37. The University of Wales

38. The University of Warwick

39. The University of York

40. The University of Liverpool

41. The University of Sussex

42. The University of Ulster

43. Queen’s University Belfast

44. Bishop Grosseteste University

45. Bournemouth University

46. Edge Hill University

47. Glasgow Caledonian University

48. Glasgow School of Art

49. Liverpool Hope University

50. Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts

51. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

52. St Mary’s University College, Belfast

53. Roehampton University

54. Sheffield Hallam University

55. The University of Brighton

56. The University of Kent

57. The University of Oxford

58. Scottish Association of Marine Science

59. The University of East Anglia

60. Institute for Development Studies