Manchester vice-president lashes out at staff in marking boycott

A senior leader has been criticised for likening academics taking part in the UK’s marking and assessment boycott to those who “build their lives on the shattered dreams of others”.

Keith Brown, who will step down shortly as vice-president of the University of Manchester and dean of its Faculty of Humanities, lashes out at colleagues who have taken part in the industrial action in a farewell message to staff, screenshots of which were shared online.

In the message, Professor Brown laments that some students in his faculty had been unable receive their final degree award because of the boycott, in which University and College Union members are participating across the UK.

“Within our faculty, responsibility for this shameful situation, Shakespeare’s ‘very midsummer madness’, lies with a relatively small number of academic staff concentrated in [the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures] and [the School of Social Sciences], that is now falling day by day,” Professor Brown writes.

“Those academic staff participating in the marking and assessment boycott are heavily concentrated in certain departments, even though pay and conditions are the same across the university. This suggests an issue with the culture and values of those departments.

“While those participating in the marking boycott are conducting legitimate industrial action, this action is hurting our students. Robert Kennedy’s phrase about being too willing to excuse those people who ‘build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others’ comes to mind.”

Professor Brown’s comments were widely criticised by union members on social media.

“Responsibility for this shameful situation lies not on those willing to take risks and make huge sacrifices to protect the future of HE, but with senior managers who have built their careers on the marketisation of HE. There is indeed a problem with culture and values,” tweeted Anna Strowe, a lecturer in translation and interpreting studies at Manchester.

The Manchester UCU branch said Professor Brown's message “displays an appalling level of contempt for staff at the university as well as betraying a lack of understanding of trade unionism and the nature of the present dispute”.

“Such statements undermine trust, goodwill and industrial relations at the university,” a spokeswoman told Times Higher Education. “This disdainful approach towards staff strains relationships between us and management, and is likely to undermine teaching colleagues’ preparations for the next academic year.”

Professor Brown and the University of Manchester have been approached for comment.

Thousands of students across the country have been left unable to graduate by the marking boycott, which is tied to a national dispute over pay.

In his message, Professor Brown says the boycott has left students facing “stress, anxiety and disappointment at a time in their lives which should be about celebration”.

He adds praise for staff who have carried out marking, “often facing truculent and aggressive behaviour within departments and at exam boards. I am very sorry to hear of colleagues who have endured unwarranted pressure to the point of shedding tears.”

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com