2018–2023 United Kingdom higher education strikes

From 2018 to 2023, the UK university sector faced an industrial dispute between staff represented by the University and College Union (UCU) and their employers represented by Universities UK (UUK). The dispute was initially over proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a pension scheme. The changes would have seen a significant drop in worker compensation, and in response the sector experienced industrial action on a scale not before seen. Pay equality, workload, casualisation, and pay levels (dubbed the "Four Fights") were added to the dispute in 2019. Action was curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, but resumed in 2021. By March 2023 a resolution had been reached on the USS, which returned to 2017 terms in a victory for the UCU. The UCU was however not successful on The Four Fights, as a November 2023 ballot for extending action failed on turnout. Many universities faced mass redundancies in 2024 amid declining funding.

The dispute was the longest in UK higher-education history, involving 42,000 staff and affecting over one million students. It has been characterised as a "milestone" for "impending service sector strikes of the 21st century." It pre-dated but ran concurrently with a wave of industrial action nationwide in response to the cost of living crisis.