Students may not graduate as staff at 44 universities boycott marking work

Staff at 44 universities will boycott marking students’ work in the coming months, the University and College Union (UCU) confirmed today.

This could prevent students at the universities in question from receiving their grades and in some cases, students may be unable to graduate.

Earlier this month, 40 universities voted for ten more days of lecturer strikes, adding to the 13 days already lost to industrial action this year.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “The decision taken by our members to escalate the pay and working conditions dispute to a marking and assessment boycott reflects their justifiable anger at university vice chancellors who continue to ignore their concerns whilst drawing over-inflated salaries and hoarding billions of pounds in reserves.

“University staff have been clear that many simply cannot contemplate staying in higher education whilst wages fall, workloads rise, and nothing is done to address the rampant use of insecure contracts or shocking equality failings.

“Vice chancellors should be ashamed of this record, but rather than solve this dispute they have become more intransigent than ever. Students and staff alike deserve so much better.

“The union’s full weight is behind every member who is taking this action on behalf of all university staff and students, which is the only way to secure the long term future of the sector.”

Here are the 44 universities where students may be unable to graduate because of a marking boycott:

1. The Queen’s University of Belfast

2. Birkbeck, University of London

3. Bournemouth University

4. The University of Brighton

5. Cardiff University

6. University of Chester

7. Courtauld Institute of Art

8. The University of Dundee

9. University of Durham

10. Edinburgh Napier University

11. The University of Edinburgh

12. The University of Essex

13. The University of Exeter

14. The University of Glasgow

15. Goldsmiths University, London

16. The University of Greenwich

17. Heriot-Watt University

18. The University of Keele

19. King’s College London

20. Kingston University

21. The University of Leeds

22. The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts

23. The University of Liverpool

24. Loughborough University

25. Newcastle University

26. The University of Northampton

27. The University of Nottingham

28. Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

29. Queen Mary University of London

30. Royal College of Art

31. Royal Northern College of Music

32. The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

33. Sheffield Hallam University

34. The University of Sheffield

35. The University of Southampton

36. The University of St Andrews

37. St Mary’s University College, Belfast

38. Stranmillis University College , Pay & working conditions only

39. The University of SPensionex

40. University for the Creative Arts

41. University of Ulster

42. University of the Arts, London

43. The University of Westminster

44. Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

For a full list of the universities facing further strike action this term, follow this link.

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