STUDENTS will not suffer further disruption to their lectures after a year long pay dispute between college staff and bosses came to an end.

Union members voted to accept a 3.5 per cent rise from employers, ending the row which saw more than 350 Bolton Community College staff strike last year.

Members of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education and five other FE college staff unions, as well as support staff who are members of Unison, walked out for a total of three days as part of national strikes.

The head of Bolton Community College welcomed the news.

Alison Bowes, Principal of Bolton Community College, said: "We are delighted that a mutually acceptable pay deal has been agreed nationally by the unions and the AoC."

NATFHE members have now voted to accept the Association of Colleges' revised offer of a 3.5 per cent pay rise, backdated to August 2002, with an additional 0.5 per cent on all salaries effective from 1 August 2003, backdated to 1 April.

The deal raises the starting salary for qualified lecturers to £18,500 from April 1, 2003, bringing it above schoolteachers' starting salaries. It also commits the AoC to a joint working party, which will make recommendations by June 2003 on new pay structures and a long-term pay deal.

While disappointed that the basic pay increase is not more substantial, NATFHE bosses have hailed the settlement as an important achievement for the unions.

The final pay deal is a significant improvement on the employers' initial offer of 1.3 per cent.

The unions are now looking to the Modernising Pay working party to close the gap between pay at colleges and schools.

The Bolton NATFHE representative did not wish to comment on the deal.

But Barry Lovejoy, joint secretary of the trade union side, said: "We're pleased that we've reached a settlement that will avoid further disruption to colleges this year. Lecturers have supported the deal on the clear understanding that the massive gap between lecturers' and schoolteachers' pay will be addressed in the working party to modernise pay."