Industrial Action Short of a Strike
The University and College Union (UCU) - the union for many members of University staff in academic and academic related roles - has announced its intention to call on its members throughout the UK to begin a comprehensive boycott of setting and marking of assessments with effect from 6 November 2014. It is doing this as part of its response to proposed changes to the USS pension scheme.
We do not have any indication of how many or which members of the UCU are likely to follow the boycott, so at this time the University is unable to provide details of how this boycott may affect you. Tutors taking part in the action will be instructed by the Union not to give a mark or a grade to assignments but that they should continue to provide teaching comments. They will be instructed to put a ‘zero’ in the score box on the PT3 form – without a ‘score’ we are unable to process assignments through our computer system – and then to return the assignment to you in the usual way. As soon as the dispute is over we will then expect tutors to provide the marks for these assignments and you will be notified when this has happened.
We realise this is not welcome news. We would like to assure you that the University is committed to doing whatever it can to minimise the effect of the boycott on your studies and progression to your next module. We will keep you updated as further information becomes available.
In the meantime we would urge you to continue to submit your assignments in the normal way and to do so by the cut-off date.
The examinations scheduled for December will proceed as planned and those of you who are due to submit an end of module assessment over the next few weeks should do so by the scheduled submission date.
If you have any queries about how your assessment may be affected you should contact your Student Support Team.
Keith Zimmerman Director, Students