Strike Action across UK Universities has concluded, with more disruption yet to come

The UCU announced ballots across England for votes on continued strike action, ending the Marking and Assessment Boycott. 140 universities are now to strike later in the month.

The UCU announced a  five day strike action from Monday 25th to Friday 29th September across 140 universities, and has withdrawn its Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) from April. With the conclusion of the MAB, the UCU is planning continued disruption to higher education throughout the next academic year. 

The UCU announced on their social media that 60% of members voted in favour of ending the MAB. University examination markers have been instructed to resume “working normally” on marking unmarked examinations- though the UCU advises markers to contact their local union of markers feel that they have been given “inappropriate or unreasonable instruction to speed up marking and assessment in order to ‘beat’” the MAB. 

In addition, the UCU (University and College Union) announced two ballots open for over 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK. Both ballots were aggregated, which means that if the UCU recorded a turnout of at least 50% or above alongside a majority vote of yes, all 150 universities will undergo strike action. The ballots opened yesterday (06/09). With 67 universities balloting over pension cuts and 145 over pay and working conditions, the possibility of a full strike has never seemed more possible than now. 

 Academics have taken to Twitter to express their frustration at the boycott and the ineffectual outcome of the mandate that they had secured. One wrote that “the MAB is no longer. As I promised, I will now prioritise my marking & make sure I do good by my students. In the consultation, I had voted to end the MAB. It had become clear to me that we would get nothing during this mandate”. Others suggested that they “ cannot think of a more disappointing way to end the MAB. I’d love to see the breakdown of results based on who participated and who didn’t. We had members holding strong who have sacrificed months of 100% pay cuts.  I’ll say it again: Jo Grady needs to resign. Now.”

This seemingly unceasing tango the UCU has engaged with the body representing the employers, UCEA ( University and Colleges Employers Association) has left students hanging in a liminal state of uncertainty as reportedly ‘constructive’ conversations continue but no precedent of what is to come has been set. At arguably the cost of many undergraduates futures since the announcement of the MAB, the UCU has stood staunchly unmoving against the offers made by the UCEA, holding strongly to the demand of a pay rise of at least RPI +2% (Retail Price Index, which overstates inflation grossly) or 12%, whichever is higher at the time of offering. A recent FOI investigation from Cherwell finds that well over 400 Oxford students have, as of 22 August, been provisionally given unclassified degrees.

Universities had responded to the boycott with varying degrees of consolatory action for students during the summer, including offering students “fake graduations” and provisional marks which were not approved in final examiners meetings. Some universities such as Durham and Oxford announced a form of qualification: the former has appointed interim classified awards for students with at least 80 credits, guaranteeing that students at the baseline the degree classification they have been awarded with interim degrees, but these can be subject to increase upon final degree classification. Once marking is complete, that is. Oxford, meanwhile, awarded students a Declared to Deserve Honours (DDH) degree, which simply translates into ‘an acknowledgement that they have passed the degree- but that they have currently received insufficient marks to receive a degree classification’. 

Although not completely a strike, this lawful ASOS would have continued until the end of September when the current mandate is due to conclude. However, this is now obsolete with the results of the two separate ballots opened today as the union withdrew the boycott.

However, the conclusion of the MAB comes on top of the announcement of lecture strikes across several UK universities, which will be creating continued disruption to higher education in an ongoing trend in several years. In addition, some universities have proposed walkouts, with Cambridge University facing the prospect of strike action over the provision of small-group supervisions which form the heart of University teaching. Workers from 150 universities originally across the UK took action, standing in solidarity under the banner of the Four Fights- strike action over the: ‘gender, ethnic and disability pay-gaps; casualisation and precarious employment practices; unsafe workloads; and falling pay’. 62 institutions took action over both pensions and pay and working conditions, whilst 5 walked out over pensions only and the remaining 83 over the Four Fights.  

Until now, the UCU has maintained ongoing ASOS (Action Short Of Strike) over the need for improved working and pay conditions for all members of the union, from university lecturers to the exam administration teams. The UCU’s decision to reject an offer of a 5-8% pay rise has resulted in extended student wait for final assessments to be marked and degrees to be issued. However, in the nation-wide re-ballot that closed on the 31st March 2023, the overwhelming majority vote of 89.92% of university voters chose to support action which included the marking and assessment boycott. On the 31st August 2023, after further analysis, the UCU has revealed that whilst many principals secured a pay rise of over 10% in 2021/22, with some reaching £360k, the Association of Colleges (AoC) set lecturer salaries as low as £26k. Whilst the UCEA has refused to improve its offer of a 5-8% pay rise, the highest ever reached in 20 years, they proposed a joint review of sector finances with UCU, to which the UCU has agreed.