Industrial action is set to continue into Spring, as a dispute over a planned University restructure remains unresolved.
The Sheffield branch of the University and College Union’s (UCU) membership rejected the University’s fifth offer by a razor-tight margin of only one vote; 264 voted against, 263 voted to accept.
527 members voted from a total membership of 1494, a turnout of 35%. This means that, approximately, only 17% of Sheffield UCU members voted to continue strike action.
The UCU, which represents higher education professionals nationwide, recently passed a motion calling for 12 further days of strike action following the Easter break, and looks likely to pursue action short of a strike until then. This means academics will continue teaching, but will refuse to reschedule classes cancelled due to four weeks of strikes in the autumn semester.
In their latest offer, the university had committed to pause the current restructure and guarantee no compulsory redundancies before 30th March 2026, asking the UCU, in return, to commit to no further industrial action until that date.
They also requested for all lost teaching, incurred across four weeks of strikes in November and December, to be replaced between 19th January and 6th February, before Semester 2 teaching began.
According to the latest University data, the winter strikes affected, approximately, 20% of teaching. This figure is based on reports shared by each school and could grow as more submit their figures.
Speaking to Forge Press, David Hayes, branch President for Sheffield UCU, said his members “were not satisfied with the arrangements for rescheduling lost teaching” and accused the University of withholding pay for this period – a claim the University describes as “categorically untrue”.
Hayes continued, “That means that affected staff will be unable to work for the whole of the exam period. In addition to not rescheduling teaching as requested, they cannot mark student assessments, or prepare for teaching in the new semester.”
In response, a spokesperson for the University of Sheffield, said: “The recent period of strike action on campus concluded on 12 December and was limited in scope, with around 10 per cent of teaching impacted while the vast majority of students’ education continued as normal. While small in scale, we recognise the impact may have been significant and frustrating for those students affected.
“Our priority is to replace any learning that may have been lost, in line with guidance from the Office for Students, to ensure students receive the education they are entitled to with as little disruption as possible.
“We respect the right of staff members to participate in industrial action and understand this decision is not taken lightly. However, where staff actively choose to breach their contract by refusing to replace the teaching students missed, the University is withholding pay in line with our long-established policy. This is standard practice in any sector.”
In Hayes’ view, the University is only rescheduling lost teaching to “avoid student compensation claims for disrupted teaching”. He encourages students to pursue such claims and “hold the University financially accountable for the disruptions of last semester”.
In response, the University stated that “this is not true”.
They continued: “We are following Office for Students expectations for universities during industrial action, as they are our regulator.
We’re asking staff to replace lost teaching so that students receive the teaching they were expecting.”
In an email to students in January, Mary Vincent, the University’s Vice President for Education, said that the “vast majority” of teaching continued.
Among the worst affected by disruption was the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations.
Cerys O’Shea, President of the Politics Society, commented:
“The real victim of strike action is the student body.
Due to the amount of politics lecturers striking, we had no choice but to initiate an open letter to demand that the University puts its students’ needs first.”
The dispute comes amidst repeated cuts and financial difficulties in the wider higher education sector, with falling student recruitment levels and a lack of public funding being blamed for the cash flow problems.
The Office for Students has predicted that higher education establishments could be operating at a £4.4bn loss by 2028.
