Three academic fellows resigned from Trinity College Cambridge on Monday, protesting the college’s decision to exit the Universities Superannuation Scheme.
The resignations were in response to Friday’s confirmatory vote, which saw fellows vote 76 to 43 to go ahead with plans to leave USS.
One history and two English fellows left their posts. Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a senior academic in the Faculty of English at Cambridge University, called the resignations “brave and principled”.
She told Pensions Expert: “Their solidarity and sense of real fellowship with all those who work in the HE sector is in stark contrast to the arrogance and contempt which the college has shown in withdrawing, for no good reason, from a shared pension scheme which will be weakened by its departure.”
Their resignations are a huge loss and source of shame for the college
Dr Priyamvada Gopal, University of Cambridge
Trinity College has already hired a temporary English teacher and begun recruiting the remaining positions, Dr Gopal said.
She added: “Their resignations are a huge loss and source of shame for the college.” She urged potential students to think carefully before applying, as 500 Cambridge staff have now withdrawn discretionary labour from Trinity.
The college did not comment on the resignations, but responded: “The decision to leave USS removed the remote but existential risk to the college arising from continued participation in USS. PwC advised USS that the college’s withdrawal does not in itself weaken the covenant.”
Trinity must pay £30m of its endowment fund to leave USS, which actuaries estimate to be around 2 per cent of the college’s assets.
Exiting USS, which offers academics the ability to move posts within the education sector but keep the same pension pot, will prohibit staff flexibility and undermine confidence in USS, critics say.
A letter signed by 250 academics across the university condemned the proposals in May. Trinity values its “balance sheet” rather than the “wider ecology of education and research”, it read.
The University and College Union threatened to "censure" Trinity College on Friday, a serious measure only used once before involving a total college boycott of jobs, lectures, exams and more by UCU members.
Before the resignations, Trinity’s senior bursar, Rory Landman, said: “Following substantial legal and actuarial advice... we believe leaving USS is in the best interests of the college.”
