BRITAIN’S universities are denying workers a pay rise while earmarking the billions their hard work has generated on needless vanity projects, the University & College Union (UCU) has charged. 

Vice-chancellors have confirmed to regulator the Office for Students that they are planning what the union says is an “inconceivable and insulting” 36 per cent increase in overall capital expenditure to £4.6 billion this year. 

This “wasteful” spending on buildings and other projects is set to be funded by the extra £3.4bn in profit generated by the sector in 2020-21, according to an UCU analysis.