As voters go to the polls, lecturers and students stage protests over cuts and closures in higher education

Universities were hit by strikes, sit-ins and the threat of ballots on future industrial action over cuts to higher education as voters went to the polls.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at King's College, London, are in the second day of a walkout over a £27m cuts programme at the institution, while at Middlesex approximately 30 students are occupying the university's Mansion building in protest at the planned closure of the philosophy department.

Meanwhile, UCU announced that it will ballot tens of thousands of members next week over a campaign against proposed changes to the university pension scheme.

Yesterday, colleges and universities were hit by the biggest wave of industrial action in more than two years, as lecturers at 11 further education colleges and three universities - Sussex and Westminster, as well as King's - staged a walkout and a march and rally in Westminster over "massive" cuts in higher education, which the union said are nearing £1bn and £340m in further education over the next academic year. UCU estimated that around 3,500 staff were involved, affecting more than 60,000 students.

The union's representative at King's, Jim Wolfreys, said negotiations were ongoing but if management did not meet members' demands they would consider future action which could hit the exam season.

Manchester College, four Birmingham colleges and the University of the Arts London are also expected to issue strike ballots in the coming weeks.

"Yesterday's action, which is continuing today at King's, has sent a clear message to the institutions where members took strike action that we will not stand by and allow jobs to go and students' education to be damaged," said Sally Hunt, UCU's general secretary. "It also sends a clear message to other universities and colleges that they need to speak to us before implementing damaging and ill-thought-through cuts. There is much still to be fought for in further and higher education, and the new government will need to hit the ground running to make a start in sorting out the current mess."

The 30 Middlesex students have been staging a peaceful sit-in since Tuesday morning calling for the university to reverse its decision to shut the world-renowned philosophy department. Anindya Bhattacharyya, an MA student, said they had mainly been studying, having rigged up a pulley system to get their books into the building.

UCU said proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension were unacceptable and would leave members out of pocket.

"The union says it accepts some changes are needed in order to ensure the stability of the fund and protect members' benefits, but it is not prepared to accept that the majority of the burden should fall on the employees," a spokesman said.

A ballot on the scheme opens on Monday, with results due to be announced at the union's annual conference at the end of the month. It is understood that about 50,000 UCU members pay into the USS scheme, many of them lecturers at pre-1992 universities.

Hunt said: "Academics' pensions have long been seen as deferred pay and an important part of the remuneration package. Universities have warned what changing the scheme would do for recruitment and retention of staff, and accepted that the decent pension scheme is some compensation for comparatively low pay. We do not accept the argument that because pension schemes have taken a bit of a battering elsewhere that we should join a race to the bottom."

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