News
By Paula Fernandez || Edited by Amber Alexander and Marouso Pappas
University students across the UK are completing their studies and receiving their degrees this year, after a five-month faculty strike last spring due to low salaries and pension cuts.
The strike, which ran from April to September of last year, consisted of a “marking and assessment boycott” led by the University and College Union (UCU) where professors restrained from grading any verbal, written, or online work, including final assignments.
The studies of a third of about half a million students from 145 universities were impacted.
The boycott ended after an agreement between the Universities and College Employers Association (UCEA) and a 60% majority of the UCU branches. Lecturers were promised to receive a 5% to 8% increase in their salaries starting August 2023 and a rise in pensions starting April of this year.
With degrees having been left unawarded, students faced an abrupt pause in their educational pursuits, hindering plans for internships, job applications, graduate school, and PhD programs.
“Because of the marking boycott, [the university] didn’t have enough grades to confirm that I was able to graduate,” said Hafsa Yusuf, a student at Queen Mary University London.
University of Cambridge’s vice- chancellor, Dr. Anthony Feeling, had said in a memo to colleagues that 50% of final-year undergraduate students and up to 90% of graduate students would be waiting for their degrees well into the current academic year, according to The Guardian.
“We never wanted to be in this position, but for over a decade, pay has been held down and conditions attacked,” said Jo Grady, the General Secretary of the UCU. “Those who run our universities only have themselves to blame.”
Grady added that instead of resolving the disputes, universities were issuing threats to withhold 100% of wages from faculty members who are still performing many of their duties.
“It is disgraceful and vindictive behaviour,” said Grady.
Professors and lecturers have seen a dramatic decline not only in their salaries but their pensions. Due to inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, they do not have a livable wage or a pension, which has left them unable to afford their mortgages or heating during the winter.
Employers imposed a series of pension cuts in 2018 which would see the average scheme member lose 35%. The latest salary offer was a 1.5% increase in salaries to combat an inflation of 4.5%.
Grady also said that several employers have joined in urging UCEA to resume pay negotiations. However, she highlighted that the employer body’s refusal to engage is causing harm to both staff and students.
The prolonged standoff between university staff and the UCEA escalated tensions within the academic community. Students’ frustration mounted as they find themselves caught in the crossfire, with their academics awaiting a decision due to the ongoing deadlock.
“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” said University of Essex lecturer Lorna Finlayson.
In addition to the delay in the reception of their degrees, students also endured cancelled lectures and a lack of support and feedback from their professors.
Third-year Sheffield Hallam student Tom Barton said that the strikes had a significant impact on numerous students as they were in a critical phase, depending heavily on individualized instruction from their professors for dissertations, final projects, or examinations.
Students from York, Leicester, and Sheffield Hallam universities started an online petition to be reimbursed for part of their tuition. More than 6,000 signatures were collected and demanded £860 of compensation to each student for the lost teaching time.
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University London, Professor Christopher Cramer, said students who had been at universities in the UK over the past few years had been affected by quite regular bouts of industrial action.
“It definitely is disruptive,” Cramer said. “I feel very sorry for those students.”
While reflecting on the stance taken during the strikes, Cramer said that when he goes on strike and declares industrial action resulting in a cancelled lecture, he doesn’t arrange for a replacement.
“If you miss that lecture, you miss that lecture, so it is a real disruption,” he said.
In Bristol, the UCU launched an anonymous online “wall of shame,” providing a platform for individuals to voice grievances and share their experiences during the strikes. This wall became a mosaic of concerns, highlighting various issues that affected both students and faculty alike. It became a forum to express frustrations and shed light on the impact of the ongoing situation.
The “wall of shame” illuminated a crucial concern: the involvement of external revisors not teaching the module, or of PhD students grading assessments. This was an issue that was not only present in Bristol, but allegedly also King’s College London and Durham university.
Different lecturers at Durham said to the student newspaper The Palatinate that they did not think that the external involvement was fair, as teaching a module offers a deep grasp of its content, aiding in recognizing quality work and identifying plagiarism. They said they feared the reallocations might change students’ anticipated grades.
“I sense that this almost annual constant agitation is going to go on for a couple of years,” said Professor Cramer. “I can’t see it changing in a dramatic way.”
Suggested Reading:
UCU Rising: important update on the MAB and strike action
thematthewrome.com 