Furious Swansea University students say they have been told they cannot graduate as expected later this month. They said the university emailed them this morning saying that because of the staff marking strike students with a limited number of modules marked won’t know their final degree classification and can’t attend ceremonies to collect their degrees.
One affected student broke down in tears saying she felt “robbed”. She said students who had expected to graduate in a few weeks are now hindered applying for jobs and post-graduate courses because of the marking delay.
The third year maths and computer sciences student said her family live in England and had paid hundreds of pounds in hotel bookings as well as deposits for her gown and photograph bookings. She was "shocked and angry" to receive an email telling her the bad news.
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Swansea University insisted only 70 students would not be able to graduate, as planned, this month. The university apologised for this. But one 22 year-old student said Swansea University had had ample warning about the strike and should have put a plan B in place, even if only for a small number of affected students. She blamed the university for poor planning, not the lecturers striking over pay and conditions.
“The university told us if you have two or more modules not marked the a decision on your degree is deferred and you can’t graduate. Four of my modules have not been marked and I wrote a whole dissertation no one has looked at. For the one module I had marked I got 86% which is a first. But I don’t know what I might get for my other modules.
“My family has paid £400 on hotel bookings and I was expecting to graduate in a few weeks. When we queried what was happening for the last few months we were told not to worry and that it would be sorted out. I feel I have paid £27,000 in student tuition fees for nothing. People are being robbed of their graduations. I have had a good cry and I am not feeling great, none of us affected are.”
The student said she believed that universities could have afforded to pay independent markers. They knew this was happening and should have negotiated with strikers more, or made other plans for marking work.
Another affected student said: “How can we apply for jobs? You need your degree mark on your CV. I am furious. They told us nothing and now they tell us this three weeks before we should graduate. Even if we do graduate in the autumn we are not going to get our summer graduation with all our friends back.”
In an email to students today, seen by WalesOnline, Swansea University’s maths and computer science department admitted said some marks would not be known until October.
The email said: “Because of the marking and assessment boycott (MAB) not all marking is complete, which means some of you do not have all your marks yet. We expect all missing marking to be done eventually, but we do not know when.”
It went on to tell students: “You will have four possible outcomes at this point:
1. If none of your modules have been affected by MAB you will be awarded a decision as usual (pass or fail) along with a degree classification (ie 2:1)
2. If you have one or more modules impacted by MAQB you will have a derived mark and the missing mark will be replaced with - for now - with your level average. This will be used for the pass/fail decision and your degree classification. This will only change if, once the missing mark is available, your classification goes up. In that case you will be given a new, higher, classification, but your classification will not, in any circumstances, go down.
3. If you have more than one missing MAB impacted module, but it is certain, once the missing marks are available, that you will have met the criteria to be awarded a degree, the decision will be award predicted. Once missing marks are available you will be awarded a classified degree - but right now we cannot say when the classification will be.
4. If you have more MAB affected modules and or have failed one or more modules and we cannot be absolutely certain you will have gained enough credit to be awarded a degree, the decision will be deferred and we will only be able to change this once we have the missing marks.”
Addressing when the marking strike might end the department’s email added: “At some point MAB will end or people will stop taking part( and outstanding assessments will be marked), we do not know when that will be, although we expect it will; be over the summer and MAB formally ends on September 30.
“Marks will then need to go through the university’s quality processes and we currently expect the earliest updated decisions available will be September 14 and if marks are still not available at that point, at some point in October.”
In response to he question “can I still graduate?” the email states: “If you have a deferred award or award predicted you will be able to attend graduation. If you have a deferred decision you will not be able to attend graduation.”
A Swansea University spokesperson said: "The total number of students who are unable to attend graduation is fewer 70 out of a total of over 2,500. It’s worth bearing in mind that in any year there will be some students unable to graduate. In terms of delay, the final results were issued today, which is no different from any other year.
"We extend sincere congratulations to our students and commend each of them on their hard work and commitment this year. We do acknowledge, however, that a small group of these students will have been affected by the national marketing and assessment boycott.
"We remain committed to upholding our academic standards and have recently implemented a set of Exceptional Assessment Regulations to minimise the impact of the boycott.
"We are working diligently to ensure that award outcomes are promptly confirmed for all students. We also want to assure our students that our university has several dedicated teams who are on hand to provide support during this time. We encourage our students to reach out to their faculties should they have any queries or concerns."
This is what other universities are saying about graduation this summer
Cardiff University
A university spokesperson referred questions on its graduations to the university website. The website says: "If there is a risk a student may not receive a degree on time, they will be told of any delay by their head of school."
It adds: "Graduation is arranged based on a student’s expected completion of their programme of study and without confirmation of their final award. This approach is necessary as confirmation of final awards is close in time to graduation."
University of South Wales
“The vast majority of our final-year students have already received their full set of results. We are sincerely sorry that a small proportion of results have been affected by the marking and assessment boycott and we have contacted those students who have been affected.
“We are working hard to process and provide results as soon as possible whilst ensuring high academic standards are maintained, and more results will be published over the coming days. We understand just how upsetting it must be and we would encourage students to make contact with their faculties, if they haven’t already, to discuss any concerns that they may have.”
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
"All students at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David have received their final awards and all graduation events are going ahead as planned."
Wrexham Glyndwr
"Our graduates will be unaffected by this. We previously held our ceremonies during the autumn, however from next year – ours will take place during the early summer. So, 2023 graduates will have their ceremonies then. The majority of our students will know their outcomes by next week."
Cardiff Metropolitan University
"All students who are eligible to graduate this summer will do so with their full degree classification. If they have chosen to take up the invitation to attend a graduation ceremony, they will cross the stage at the Welsh Millennium Centre in July. No student has had their graduation or award deferred as a result of the marking and assessment boycott."
