Skip to main contentCambridge University Reporter

No 6504

Wednesday 2 May 2018

Vol cxlviii No 28

pp. 533–549

Graces

Grace submitted to the Regent House on 2 May 2018

The Council submits the following Grace to the Regent House. This Grace, unless it is withdrawn or a ballot is requested in accordance with the regulations for Graces of the Regent House (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 105) will be deemed to have been approved at 4 p.m. on Friday, 11 May 2018.

1. That this Regent House, as the governing body of the University,

(i)

notes the importance of adequate pension provision to the University’s recruitment and retention at all levels;

(ii)

regards the proposals and assumptions set out by the Universities Superannuation Scheme Trustee in the September 2017 Technical Provisions Consultation, including the draft recovery plan and provision for additional conditional contributions of up to 7% of pensionable pay ‘in extremis’ over 20 years, as an acceptable basis for ensuring the future sustainability of the Scheme;

(iii)

accepts the level of risk implied by the Trustee’s proposals and assumptions in its September 2017 valuation;

(iv)

notes the recent University and Colleges Union ballot approving the establishment of a joint expert panel to agree key principles to underpin the joint approach of Universities UK and UCU to the valuation of the USS fund for benefit changes to come into effect from 1 April 2019;

(v)

in respect of the nationally negotiated USS benefit changes to come into effect from 1 April 2019, expects the University:

(a)

to take every reasonable step to deliver a nationally and internationally competitive Defined Benefit pension scheme; and

(b)

to report through the Council by the end of the academical year 2018–19 on alternative means of maintaining, in the longer term, the total remuneration and retirement package of the University’s USS members, in the event that the benefits that can be delivered through such negotiations are materially less than those currently available to those members;

(vi)

in respect of the longer-term position of the USS, expects the University to support every effort to find a solution that offers an attractive, sustainable, and fair pension settlement acceptable to the University’s USS members; and

(vii)

in respect of both (v) and (vi) above, expects the University, through the Council, to keep the Regent House updated on progress both in the work of the joint expert panel and in any subsequent negotiations between the UUK and the UCU.1

Footnotes