Universities are threatening to punish staff who fail to make up for lectures and seminars（seminar n. 研讨会） cancelled during strikes, a move that union leaders say could prolong（vt. 延长） the industrial action.

In one case the University of Kent has told staff that any failure to reschedule（vt.重新安排） lectures or classes lost because of the strike would see them lose 50% to 100% of their pay “for every day where an individual continues to refuse to perform their full contract of employment”. Kent's hardline stance（n. 立场） extends to deducting（deduct vt.减去） a high proportion of pay from low-paid graduate teaching assistants, with some liable to lose more than a month's pay for taking part in the strikes that have so far lasted five days.

The strike by academics（academic n.大学教师）, librarians and administrators over proposals to radically（adv. 根本上；过激地） restructure their pensions, which the University and College Union claims will cost staff £ 10,000 a year after retirement, are scheduled to restart next week at about 60 universities.

St Andrews and Keele universities are among those that have told staff they face additional pay deductions unless they reschedule events cancelled during the industrial action, which started on 22 February. The cuts would come on top of the pay automatically lost while on strike.

Liverpool University, headed by Janet Beer, the president of the Universities UK group backing the pension changes, told staff they would be “expected to provide learning rtiaterials” for events missed through strikes or they could have their pay docked. Sheffield University had initially threatened to further dock（vt. 扣除） pay but the university backed down after staff protests. Keith Burnett, Sheffield’s vice-chancellor（chancellor n.名誉校长）, issued a statement saying the university would not take a “punitive approach”.

Sally Hunt, the UCU general secretary, said universities such as Kent risked prolonging the strikes by adopting a confrontational（adj.对抗的） approach. “Universities are trying a wide range of tactics to break striking staff in this dispute. The one thing they have in common is that none of them are working,Hunt said. Leon Schoonderwoerd，a PhD student in theoretical（adj.理论的） physics who is a graduate teaching assistant at Kent, said the university was taking about £ 200—£ 250 from his £ 300 monthly pay for taking part in the strike. “The university has taken the harshest route in the way it has decided to deduct pay,”Schoonderwoerd said.

Staff at Oxford and Cambridge universities are using institutional（adj.机构的） protests to change their universities’ positions on the pension changes. In Oxford, academics have petitioned（petition vi.请求） for an emergency debate at the university's congregation next week but Oxford's leadership vowed to block any debate using procedural rules. Cambridge’s vice-chancellor, Stephen Toope, announced that the university was prepared to pay higher contributions in order to retain the current pension scheme（n.方案） and end the dispute. “It should be noted, however, that this approach would likely re-quire trade-offs（trade-of n.权衡） and cuts in other parts of the university,” Toope said.