St. Thomas University in Fredericton will be extending its semester by 11 days, as students and professors return to the classroom on Tuesday.

The university and its faculty association agreed to settle a strike through binding arbitration on Saturday.

Wages and workload have been key issues in the labour dispute, which began on Dec. 27 when the university locked out its professors. The administration lifted the lockout in January, but by then the teaching staff had voted to strike.

The two sides are still far apart on the issue of wages, said Jeffrey Carleton, university spokesman.

"We made some progress at the bargaining table over the last five days, but we were still significantly far apart on compensation," Carleton said.

Binding arbitration was the best way to ensure classes could resume while the faculty continued its fight, said Dawn Morgan, spokeswoman for the faculty association.

"We had reached this serious impasse and we could evaluate that we weren't going to get any further through the negotiation route," said Morgan. "We don't have to give up the fight, but we can go back to the classroom."

The faculty association rejected the administration's last offer on Jan. 29. The offer included a pay increase of three per cent annually for two years and 3.5 per cent in the third year.

Students have been out of classes since they left for Christmas holidays in December. Classes were originally scheduled to resume on Jan. 3.

When the school's 2,500 students return to classes on Tuesday, their semester will be rescheduled to conclude on April 25, with exams going into May. The reading week period for the students has also been shortened to two days.

Overall the students will get 53 days of education, compared with the 59 days offered in the winter semester last year.

"My reaction is just like every other student — it's great to be going back to class," said Colin Banks, president of the university's student union.

Packing it in

But some students are disappointed with the situation.

Kate Ketcham and Kisanne Stout told CBC News they felt their time at St. Thomas University had been a waste and they would not be returning to the school.

The two students packed up their cars to return to Saint John over the weekend.

"I have lost a lot of faith in St. Thomas and I don't respect how they've carried on with this whole strike. I just decided I didn't want to support them anymore," Ketchum said.

Stout said: "I only ended up getting three credits because two of my courses were four-year courses, so I ended up losing that, so that was a waste."

She said they intended to look for work and apply to the University of New Brunswick for the fall.

Carleton said the university will be meeting with students who are facing losses because of the labour dispute and look at compensation options.

Banks said some students will also need support to stay in Fredericton past the end of April to write exams.

"What we'll be telling students is if you need to write your exam in April, we're going to accommodate the students," Carleton said. "St. Thomas is a small school, so we're able to do a lot of accommodation that larger schools can't."

With files from the Canadian Press