College teachers have postponed plans to strike today following an eleventh-hour pay offer from employers.

Members of the NATFHE union at Oxford and Cherwell College voted earlier this month to take strike action over pay.

They said the college had failed to implement the first phase of a two-year pay deal agreed last October with the National Association of Colleges.

Colleges nationally have been promised a 3.5 per cent pay rise, but staff at Oxford and Cherwell, which has campuses at Oxford, Banbury and Thame, have only been offered two per cent. The strike was dropped following a meeting between union officials and college authorities late on Tuesday, at which the union accepted an increased offer of 2.5 per cent backdated to August.

But the union has not dropped its threat to strike later in the year if teachers' pay at Oxford and Cherwell is not brought in line with other colleges.