THOUSANDS of students will stay at home tomorrow when Huddersfield Technical College is shut by strike action.

Teaching staff will be taking part in a one-day strike over pay.

And their industrial action - coupled with an ongoing strike by caretaking staff - will mean no lectures for more than 3,300 of the college's 20,000 students.

The lecturers' strike is by members of the further education union NATFHE, angered by an impasse in their national pay deals.

They want a rise of 7% to bring them more in line with the pay of school teachers.

But colleges across the country have been offered a deal worth just 2.5% for this year.

The union balloted for action and received overwhelming support. Other local colleges affected by tomorrow's strike include Dewsbury College and Calderdale College in Halifax.

Mrs Marie Lewis, a lecturer and Huddersfield branch secretary of NATFHE, said: "The dispute is not just about our pay.

"We are genuinely concerned that the further education field is lagging further and further behind in terms of investment, when compared to other education.

"Our pay is falling way behind that of school teachers and we have to address that issue.

"But there is a serious lack of funding for further education which has meant we have seen redundancies in Huddersfield and classes ended."

NATFHE has 240 members at Huddersfield Technical College and they will be picketing there tomorrow.

Mrs Lewis said the decision to shut the college completely to students was made by the management and not the union.

The action comes as a dispute involving the college caretaking staff entered its second week.

They have been on strike since earlier this month - again in a dispute over pay parity.

A college spokesman said: "The decision to cancel all classes tomorrow was made because of uncertainty over how many people will be affected by the lecturers' dispute. We did not want to see any further disruption.

"A national offer has been made to the lecturers' union which is 2% and a further 0.8% in January.

"As regards funding, we would all welcome any extra cash for the further education field."

She said the caretaking dispute had not caused major disruption to the college.