Our thanks to every member who took strike action on 3 December and supported the union’s campaign for fair pay. It was a day of action all over the country in universities across the UK and in English FE colleges. You can see the whole day and follow it as it happened on our Live Blog.

Despite the busy news week, the strike action won a lot of coverage in the press, both nationally and regionally.

In higher education, the employers’ organisation UCEA trotted out its usual line that the 1% offer was all they could afford, yet UCU has today published a new briefing showing that according to their own forecasts, universities have good, healthy surpluses and reserves.

The union’s higher education committee is meeting on Friday December 6 to discuss and agree the next steps in the higher education campaign, while the further education committee will meet in January. In the meantime, the importance of campaigning on pay was highlighted this week by the publication of ONS statistics showing the role of wage freezes in stagnating household incomes.