UNIVERSITY bosses are refusing to negotiate during massive further education strikes nationwide despite sitting on more than enough cash to resolve the damaging dispute, unions charged today. 

The increasingly marketised sector generated more money than ever last year but staff expenditure hit rock bottom, new analysis from the University and College Union (UCU) reveals.

The union, which examined data from 147 institutions, said that the mammoth surplus generated could have raised staff wages by 10 per cent with “hundreds of millions to spare.”

The Universities and Colleges Employers Association has repeatedly claimed that it is unable to improve upon its latest below-inflation offer worth between just 4 and 5 per cent for most staff. 

But UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “A national scandal is brewing that will see hundreds of thousands of students graduate with degrees not worth the paper they are written on, unless universities make staff a fair pay offer.

“With the employer body now refusing to negotiate, students and their parents will rightly be furious.

“Our analysis shows that the university sector is richer than ever, generating tens of billions in income and hoarding billions more in cash deposits, yet universities are waging a war on staff and students by withholding the pay of staff engaged in marking boycotts and devaluing degrees.”

The increasingly bitter dispute, which launched with a walkout of 70,000 university staff last November, is set to rumble on after UCU members overwhelmingly voted to renew their six-month strike mandate in early April.

Ms Grady accused employers of “playing fast and loose with university balance sheets,” saying: “If vice-chancellors cared about staff and students, they would use the sector's vast wealth to end this dispute tomorrow.”