What you need to know

• A pensionable supplement of 2.5% basic monthly pay will be awarded to all staff on University terms and conditions up to and including salary point 48
• The University is significantly enhancing a range of staff benefits, including family leave and paternity leave
• The University will enable appointments to higher spine points for academics on grades 9, 10 and 11
• New progression schemes have been created, with others in development, to improve promotion and reward for colleagues.

Below you will find an update on important work the University has been doing on pay, staff benefits and career progression schemes. We have listened carefully to what matters most to our staff, and how the University should invest in its people to achieve the goals set out in its new People Strategy.

The following package for 2024/25 is the first step in a multi-year plan to review and improve our pay and grading structures. It applies to staff employed on University terms and conditions only.

Staff pay:

In this initial step, extra support will be targeted at around 8,000 staff with a supplement of 2.5% of pay for those at or below point 48 on the Cambridge pay scales.

The supplement, which is fully pensionable, will be paid pro rata to part-time staff. It is designed to recognise that, prior to the conclusion of the pay review, the high cost of living in Cambridge is felt most keenly by those on the lower grades of our pay scales.

The supplement will be paid in monthly instalments from 1 October (backdated to 1 August) until the outcome of the pay review is implemented.

Separately, on national pay negotiations, UCEA has published its final pay offer. The current offer breaks down as follows:

• The offer is for a staged approach that results in uplifts ranging from 2.5% to 5.7% on the national pay spine
• On 1 August 2024, an uplift of £900 a year to be applied to all pay points
• From 1 March 2025, a balance to be added to spine points to complete the uplift for 2024/25. This balance to be distributed towards the lower spine points and gradually tapered to 2.5% for those on salary point 50 and above.

However, the University and College Union and Unison have rejected this offer and a dispute resolution process is now in place. This will delay confirmation of the final national pay award and the date of its implementation. We will confirm details as soon as we have them.

Enhanced benefits:

Other important elements of the Cambridge package for staff announced today are as follows.

From October:

• Enhanced paid family leave provision for all staff, increasing maternity and adoption full pay from 18 to 26 weeks
• Enhanced paternity leave, increasing full pay from two weeks to 12 weeks
• Payment of visa and NHS surcharge fees for all new starters who are employed on a Skilled Worker or Global Talent Visa
• Existing Research Assistants will receive a pay uplift to point 36 if they are currently below that point, backdated to 1 August.

We will also be taking forward a proposal to remove the current restrictions on contribution increments for academics in grades 9, 10 and 11. Further details on this will be published in the Reporter on 31 July.

Career progression schemes:

The University has recently implemented new progression schemes to enhance the promotion prospects of staff, and to ensure they are appropriately rewarded for their development. These schemes include the Academic Career Pathway (Research and Teaching) and the Academic Career Pathway (Teaching and Scholarship). We have also developed a new Academic Career Pathway for research staff which will be considered by the University Council in Michaelmas Term.

At the higher end of the scale, where independent research suggests that we lag behind our competitors, the University has strengthened the Professorial Pay Review scheme to help senior academics move more easily through the top pay bands. The Contribution Reward Scheme for grade 12 professional services staff is now annual rather than biennial.

Investing in our people is absolutely vital, even at a time when the University is running a significant deficit. This package addresses some of the challenges that staff face, particularly in relation to the ongoing high cost of living in and around Cambridge. There is more we plan to do, but this is an important first step.

Further detail on the package is provided in FAQs on the HR Division website.