University staff in Dumfries were back on the picket line this week after pay talks collapsed.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) who work at Crichton campus staged a walkout on Wednesday.
The strike affected classes at the University of Glasgow’s Dumfries site and more industrial action is planned for next week.
A picket line for staff of the University of West of Scotland, which also has a base at the Crichton, was held at their campus in Paisley.
Union bosses say staff were “forced” back to the picket line after the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) failed to make a better offer.
Staff had a three per cent deal “imposed” on them, with the union rejecting an offer last week worth between four and five per cent.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Their anger over falling pay, insecure employment and pension cuts is impossible to ignore.
“University vice-chancellors have been given multiple opportunities to use the sector’s vast wealth to resolve these disputes. Instead, they have forced staff back to the picket line and brought disruption to students.
“Staff aren’t asking for much. They want a decent pay rise, secure employment and for devastating pension cuts to be reversed. These demands are reasonable and deliverable by a sector which has more than £40 billion in reserves.
“There are 17 further days of strike action planned, but it can be avoided. For that, we need university bosses to get serious and make much improved offers.
“If they don’t, any disruption that takes place is entirely their responsibility.”
University staff in Dumfries are expected to be back on picket lines next Wednesday and Thursday as the action escalates.
Raj Jethwa, UCEA’s chief executive, said: “Despite the initial feedback from higher education institutions suggesting low and isolated impact on students, it is saddening if even a single student is impacted, especially when UCEA made an unprecedented full and final pay offer of between eight per cent and five per cent more than three months in advance of the usual timetable.
