Lecturers have been on strike several times since May 2006

The Universities and Colleges Union is seeking pay parity between lecturers and school teachers.

It was the seventh strike in the pay dispute with the colleges in less than a year.

Last month, a Whitehall Committee rejected the union's attempts to have the cap on public sector pay relaxed.

Jim McKeown, the UCU's regional official, said: "We had hoped that the case was entirely justified and we believed the case to be entirely justified.

"But the committee turned the claim down on the grounds that there wasn't a recruitment problem for lecturers into the sector.

"Essentially, what they are saying is the issue of fair pay doesn't matter to this government - that if you're prepared to work for buttons, then that is what you are going to get."