LECTURERS formed picket lines outside York College in a bitter dispute over pay.

But York College management said despite the one-day strike it was "business as usual" for students.

Staff say they are paid thousands of pounds less than school teachers for teaching exactly the same courses.

College principal Mike Galloway said: "The college regrets the action being taken by one of the teaching unions today.

"We share the union's objective of securing equal funding for colleges and schools and believe that we should be focusing on putting pressure on the Government to address the funding gap."

John Westmoreland, a history lecturer and a member of lectures' union NATFHE, joined the picket line yesterday. He said: "For doing the same job as school teachers we are paid thousands of pounds less.

"We don't want anything special.

"We just want parity with our colleagues in schools. This is a one-day strike, but we are prepared to take further industrial action until our claim is met.

"Of course we regret any disruption to students, but many of our students and their parents have come up to us on the picket line today and expressed their support for what we are doing.

"They realise we are not just fighting over pay - we are also defending education from a Government that wants to slim it down, dumb it down and package it in a way that undermines traditional values."

Chloe Durkin, a media student at the college, said: "I am very sympathetic with the lecturers who are on strike. They work hard for us so they should be paid a fair wage."

York College deputy principal Graeme Murdoch said: "There is a disparity between how colleges and schools are funded for the same qualifications, and that is something we would obviously like to see change.

"We could do a lot more for learners if we were paid the same rates.

"We are therefore very sympathetic with the message that the union is trying to portray - the concerns are shared.

"It is business as usual here.

"Students will be attending classes as normal, doing a variety of activities including self-learning packages, tutorial activities and independent learning."

Members of lecturers' union NATFHE walked out across the country in protest at their colleges' failure to implement a nationally agreed pay deal worth about eight per cent.

But the Association of Colleges blamed a "financial difficulty" due to a lack of Whitehall funding.

Updated: 10:17 Friday, February 25, 2005