University workers will vote on whether to take strike action later this month over a "miserly" 1 per cent pay offer - their fifth year in a row of real-terms pay cuts.

The University and College Union (UCU) confirmed yesterday it will start balloting its members next Wednesday and could launch industrial action in October.

Academics have not received a pay rise since October 2008, when they were handed a four-year freeze which has left them 13 per cent worse off on average.