Student numbers have been falling at the University of Law, resulting in smaller than expected pay rises for staff.

The details were revealed in a memo leaked to RollOnFriday. Unite, the lecturers' union, emailed staff to say that it was recommending a 1.5% pay rise to its members against a background of "a decline in student numbers from 2012/13 (to a level below that we had assumed for our 2013/14 budget)".

This figure seems to sit slightly at odds with the UoL's recent annual report which referred to the "most successful" launch of its undergraduate course, which will "form the basis of our domestic growth plans". The report predicted that its LLB cohort would double in size in 2013/14. A spokeswoman for the UoL confirmed that this target had been achieved, but admitted the LLB only accounts for 5% of the UoL's student body. She wouldn't comment on the size of the fall in overall student numbers.

A University of Law classroom yesterday

The pay-rise means that tutors will start on a salary of £31,550, or appreciably less than a trainee at a mid-tier City firm ("stingy bastards" commented one insider). Although at least they still have jobs: the University made three rounds of redundancies in under six months this year.