Nicola Dandridge's argument for changing the Universities Superannuation Scheme elides the fundamental moral difference between university managers and the University and College Union. The proposal is to change the scheme so that new members get a much poorer deal than existing members (the employer's hope being that those voting on the change will happily short-change future colleagues).
Under the career-average revalued earnings version of USS, over the next 35 years of pension payment, a new lecturer who reaches senior lecturer before retirement would be almost ?200,000 worse off in the first 18 years of retirement than the current senior lecturer mentoring her entry into the profession.
The employer's expectation is that we will smile and work with our new colleagues while happily accepting that their subs will ensure our good pension as they slowly build a far less attractive package for their own retirement. I doubt that there are many USS members who will embrace the employers' "I'm all right, Jack" morality. We will need to pay more, of course, but that would allow us to look our new colleagues in the eye.
Andrew Morgan, Swansea.