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Lecturers attacked the government at the Trades Union Congress this week for ducking responsibility for higher education pay and conditions. Alan John, president of university and college lecturers' union Natfhe, accused ministers of passing the buck by claiming pay and conditions were up to individual institutions. Delegates to the congress agreed a motion from the Association of University Teachers calling for the government to take investment in higher education to the level of the top quartile of countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The AUT called for a national inquiry on pay discrimination to assess the extent of the problem across the whole public sector.