Research ‘sacrificed’ due to ‘burden’ of extra marking in boycott

Academics not participating in the UK’s marking boycott have had to put aside their research to ensure papers are marked in time for students to graduate, the vice-chancellor who chairs the employer body has claimed.

George Boyne, principal of the University of Aberdeen and chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea), said his students were all graduating as normal this week with “fully classified degrees because all of their work has been marked”.

“That’s not to say that there hasn’t been a huge effort to get to this point and there have been negative consequences for some groups in our community, starting with the students who, for some time, could not be completely sure that they would graduate as normal – so there was some stress”, he said.

“There has also been extra work for colleagues who have stood up and done the marking,” Professor Boyne said during a briefing on the situation, accusing those participating in the boycott of placing a “burden” on the rest of the academic community.

He said he had no concerns about the quality of the marking but claimed other activities such as research “have been sacrificed” in order to prioritise getting students their grades. 

Thousands of students have been affected by the boycott across the UK and might not receive their degree marks before graduation, with the two sides struggling to make progress towards any sort of agreement.

But Raj Jethwa, chief executive of Ucea, said the latest figures gathered by the body continued to show the boycott was having a limited impact at most institutions.

Figures collated on 29 June from 82 institutions estimated that 2.6 per cent of all students would be affected; equivalent to 13,000 students or one in 40.

Disruption was varying widely from university to university, with Ucea’s survey finding 40 per cent of respondents claiming there had been no impact on students and 11 per cent saying they had had more than 10 per cent affected.

The University and College Union has previously accused the body of “spinning” and said such figures did not account for the decline in academic standards that many universities had had to implement to mitigate the impact of the boycott.

Mr Jethwa said that Ucea would continue to insist the boycott was called off before negotiations could resume, but has suggested that an independent review of higher education funding would be a way to make progress. 

“It's incumbent upon all of us to try to find a way back from where we are at the moment,” said Mr Jethwa.

He added that Ucea had proposed a review two weeks ago to establish the true picture of what was affordable for the sector amid competing claims about the financial health of institutions.

Such a review would be independently facilitated, with buy-in from both employers and unions, Mr Jethwa said.

“That might be a way to try to resolve some of the misunderstanding,” he said. “Just last night, actually, we did have a response from the unions and we need to follow up with them. But this might offer us a way to have further constructive discussions with the unions, and that’s probably as much as we can say.”

Asked to respond, Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary, reiterated her view that “every single institution involved in the dispute is able to pay staff more than the 5 per cent our members have rejected”.

While the boycott continues, Mr Jethwa said, employers were being very flexible and continuing to offer positions to those still awaiting their final grades.

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said she understood that the Home Office was about to issue guidance on what international students should do if their study visas were expiring but they were still awaiting their grades.

She said she was “reasonably confident things are moving in the right direction” on this issue.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com