UCU members at pre-92 universities are set to take 14 days of strike action after the trustees of the University Superannuation Scheme (USS) wanted to push through changes that will see academic staff lose up to over £200,000 from their pensions in retirement.

We believe lecturers and other hard working university staff deserve a decent quality pension scheme and are right to strike in defence of having a decent standard of living in retirement.

Although Sir Alan Langlands, Leeds University's Vice Chancellor has now met staff to discuss their concerns about these changes, he is maintaining a silence on this issue, unlike many of his colleagues how are now calling for a return to negotiations on the basis of looking at other ways of dealing with issues with the pensions scheme.

We the undersigned call upon Sir Alan Langlands, Leeds University Vice-Chancellor to:

• Support a return to negotiations over the USS pension schemes to protect a Defined Benefit scheme so staff know what they are receiving in retirement.

• Support a fully-funded education system, democratically run by staff and students, with free education for all.