UP TO 1,000 members of staff at the University of Southampton will take industrial action next week after negotiations failed to resolve a pensions dispute.

Academics and senior staff will boycott any action which involves assessing students which could lead to major disruption with the exam period approaching.

Following a ballot at 69 universities across the country last week over proposals to change pensions put forward by university employer Universities UK (UUK), members of the University and College Union voted for industrial action.

Now staff will boycott student assessments, setting and marking exams and coursework on Thursday November 6.

The union said proposals to change the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which covers some of the UK's oldest universities, would leave members losing thousands of pounds in retirement.

The employer says the changes are necessary to deal with the USS's huge £8 billion deficit.

Forty five per cent of UCU members across the country voted, with 87 per cent for this boycott while 78 per cent of voted for strike action.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “The employers failed to convince us of the need for their dramatic changes or the reasons behind the methodology for its deficit reduction plan.

“Their proposals remain full of holes and the information they are apparently relying on to back them up keeps being exposed as misleading.

“We are setting plans for an assessment boycott in place because USS members have made it clear they are unconvinced by the employers' arguments as well.

“We are being asked to buy a pig in a poke and that is simply not acceptable.

“We hope the employers will come back to the table for genuine negotiations aimed at resolved the enormous gap between our two positions.”