College employers and the EIS-FELA trade union have today (Tuesday 3 September 2024) formally ratified a four-year pay award for lecturers.

The agreement will deliver a £5,000 consolidated pay rise across the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, as well as a further increase of 4.14% in 2025/26.

Gavin Donoghue, Director of College Employers Scotland (CES), said:

“We are pleased this long-running pay dispute is now officially over and that lecturers can get back to providing the world-class college education that students deserve.

“This pay deal will keep Scotland’s college lecturers as the best-paid in the UK, with starting salaries rising to nearly £42,000 from September next year and average salaries jumping to more than £50,000. In addition, as it covers four academic years, lecturing staff will benefit from certainty over their pay up to September 2026.

“Ratification of this pay award also paves the way for the submission of all student results withheld during the recent industrial action, and we urge lecturers to now input these results without delay.”

Andrea Bradley, General Secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said:

“Our members in Scotland’s Further Education colleges overwhelmingly voted to accept the final improved pay offer, securing a long-overdue pay settlement and bringing the campaign of industrial action in colleges to an end.

“Scotland’s FE lecturers only ever wanted a fair pay settlement that took account of recent huge increases in the cost of living, and which properly values the essential work that they do in supporting learners in colleges across Scotland. While this took far longer than hoped, lecturers have clearly indicated that they believe we now have a pay settlement which meets both of these objectives.

“With the ratification of this pay award, the dispute is now formally concluded, and lecturers can return to working as normal in support of students. In line with the final agreement, lecturers will now have ten days to input any student results, which are already finalised and which were withheld as part of the resulting boycott, into college systems.”