Staff are holding a one day strike at both Bradford College and the University of Bradford today in a national row over pay.

Lecturers in UK universities first walked out in October when members of UCU, Unison and Unite took strike action.

Today, they were striking again, and were due to be joined by staff at further education colleges in England, who will be taking their first day of industrial action.

Unions fighting for pay rises say staff in universities have seen their pay fall 13 per cent in real terms in the past four years, while staff in further education colleges have had a real-terms pay cut of 15 per cent.

Michele Sutton, Bradford College group chief executive, said the college could not afford to give staff the requested five per cent pay rise.

She said: “Naturally the College regrets any disruption to students caused by this action. The College is doing everything possible to minimise the disruption that the UCU action will cause to students’ learning.”