The 2006 higher education pay dispute: the reality of partnership rhetoric?

The rhetoric of partnership appears to have played a central justificatory role in policy change and law reform during the past decade, especially in the field of industrial relations. We investigate in this paper its implications for higher education. We do so in the context of the 2006 pay dispute with reference both to recent developments in the higher education sector and to the legal framework within which the dispute was conducted. We argue that despite the government’s suggestion that this was only a dispute between universities as employers and their employees, its particular version of partnership shaped the contours of the dispute and determined its outcome.