PAY docked from staff who went on strike at the University of West England should go to students in financial hardship, the University and College Union (UCU) said today.

The union has written to vice-chancellor Steve West, calling on him to put all the money deducted from the strikers’ salaries directly into a fund to support students in need.

Last month, staff at the university and their colleagues at 149 others went on strike for three days in protest at attacks on pay and poor working conditions in the biggest industrial action ever to hit higher education.