At first its aims were local and in 1910 it won a campaign over representation on the faculties but on learning that similar groups had been formed or were in the process of formation they invited representatives of the junior staff from Bristol, Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester for a dinner.

By 1917 inflation had rapidly eroded the value of salaries and Douglas Laurie called a meeting on 15 December 1917 to draw up a memorandum to present to the Board of Education.

The issues raised by the memorandum drafted at the meeting included: pay; tenure; status; grading; opportunities for research and superannuation.

This was to be repeated nearly a century later when delegates to the 2005 AUT council were presented with a draft rulebook for the merger with NATFHE which stated: "The name of the union shall be [insert name]".

It is interesting to speculate how the Association would have developed if professors had been excluded from membership and it was set up on a basis of representing solely the junior staff.

[citation needed] In March 2004, AUT members took industrial action over the proposed new pay structures (the Framework Agreement) offered by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).

The agreement included the so-called Memorandum of Understanding which provided certain safeguards on the way the new pay structures were to be implemented in pre 1992 universities.

The boycott, which was not compulsory, was set to last until Haifa "ceases its victimisation of academic staff and students who seek to research and discuss the history of the founding of the state of Israel".

[3] Israel's embassy in London issued a statement criticizing the AUT's vote as a "distorted decision that ignores the British public's opinion", and condemning the resolutions for being "as perverse in their content as in the way they were debated and adopted.

"[4] Zvi Ravner, Israel’s deputy ambassador in London, also noted that "[t]he last time that Jews were boycotted in universities was in 1930s Germany.

"[5] Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement condemning the "misguided and ill-timed decision to boycott academics from the only country in the Middle East where universities enjoy political independence".

Some members of the AUT, headed by Open University lecturer Jon Pike - subsequently gathered enough signatures to call a special meeting on the subject.

Reasons cited for the decision were: the damage to academic freedom, the hampering of dialogue and peace effort between Israelis and Palestinian, and that boycotting Israel alone could not be justified.

UCEA's initial response was "that it is very likely that a significant proportion of the HE sectors new income will be spent on improvements in staff pay and conditions, but that HEIs had never given a commitment".

Concerns grew that students might not be able to graduate in 2006[13] until the industrial action was suspended at midnight on 7 June while members were balloted on a new offer.