The university employers have made a final offer of a 1 per cent pay increase for staff next year. Responding to the offer, announced by the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association after Tuesday’s negotiating meeting, UCU head of bargaining and negotiations, Michael MacNeil, told Times Higher Education it was wrong to bring individual employees’ pay progression increments into the debate about national salary rises. ‘The employers are trying to inflate the worth of the offer but, let’s be clear, for the vast majority of staff it is simply a 1 per cent increase to the pay scales. The offer will be discussed at our annual conference later this month, where delegates will consider the offer and whether to put it to members’, he said.