STUDENTS at Mid-Kent College may have to cross a picket line to attend classes if lecturers stage a two-day strike next month.

Pay talks between the lecturers' union, NATFHE, and further education colleges have stalled, leaving the threat of a strike hanging in the balance.

About 150 members of NATFHE at Mid-Kent College began balloting today to decide whether or not to take strike action on October 3 and 4.

College lecturers across the country are considering strike action in protest at being left behind in the pay scale, with schoolteachers often earning £3,000-5,000 more than their further education colleagues.

Paul Short, the chairman of the NATFHE Union's Medway branch, said: "We don't want to do anything that would damage the students' education, but we also have to think of next year's students and the ones after that.

"If the Government wants quality tertiary education then they are going to have to shell out for it. At the moment we are just falling further and further behind teachers, and it's the students who end up suffering."

John Levett, principal of Mid-Kent College, said steps would be taken to ensure students' education was not unduly disrupted if NATFHE opted to strike.

He said: "We would take every necessary action required to minimise the effects on our students."