Students complain they are being asked to 'snitch' after university asks for names of striking lecturers as eight day industrial action begins

Students have complained that they are being asked to "snitch" on teaching staff after their university asked for names of their striking lecturers at the beginning of an 8-day walkout.

Sheffield Hallam university has posted a form on its website on which students can enter details of the lectures missed due to strike action.

This has angered some students, who have implored their Twitter followers to spam the form with nonsense.

Twitter account Hallam Student Support The Strike posted:  FUN FACT - "The 'grass on striking lecturers form' is public - anyone can access it If you've got a spare minute, why not submit a report or ten telling Sheffield Hallam exactly what you think of this scheme?"

Pranksters tweeted evidence that they had done just this, with one pretending to have missed a lecture by "Dr Seuss" and another posting quotes from Animal Farm.

Other submissions include "you must really hate your staff" and "we are not your surveillance tools".

A Sheffield Hallam University spokesperson explained: “To help us ensure that students do not miss anything essential, we are monitoring what activities are impacted. Staff aren’t obliged to tell the University of their decision to take industrial action until after the end of the strike period. The form available helps us capture sessions that have not taken place as soon as possible so we can proactively plan alternative learning opportunities and minimise disruption for students.”

Up to 43,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) at 60 UK institutions are taking part in walk-outs in an action the union has said will affect about a million students in the run-up to the Christmas break.

Those going on strike include lecturers, student support services staff, admissions tutors, librarians, technicians and administrators.

Prominent academics supporting the strike include Mary Beard, a leading Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, who said she "works 100 hours a week" and would therefore "not be crossing a picket line".

UCU has said staff have reached "breaking point" over issues including workloads, real-terms cuts in pay, a 15% gender pay gap and changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which the union says will leave members paying in more and receiving less in retirement.

Picket lines are being mounted at campuses across the country, protests held and other forms of industrial action launched, including not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strike action.

Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is due to speak at a rally in Manchester in support of the strikes.

The strikes will take place on five days this week, and again for three days from December 2.

Ms Rayner said: "Fair pay, secure contracts, reasonable workloads and decent, affordable pensions should come as standard for all those working in education, including in our universities.

"Thousands are on strike today because that simply isn't the case in the increasingly marketised system that the Tories have created. Labour will end the failed free market experiment in education and instead put staff and students first."