Queen’s University has tonight confirmed that “all students will now graduate after extensive work aimed at reducing the impact of the UK-wide Marking and Assessment Boycott (Mab) by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU)”.
In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, the Belfast university said their management had “expressed gratitude to the local UCU branch who facilitated this development as an act of good faith and to the staff members of the university who worked hard to reach this agreement”.
They added: “While the vast majority of our students will not be impacted by this action, we estimate that around 750 students (18% of approx. 4,200 in total) will have their degree classification pending across the following areas: Law, History, Anthropology, Politics, Architecture, Psychology, Music, Environmental Planning, Archaeology, Sociology, and Criminology.
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“Any Queen’s student with a pending classification wishing to continue to a postgraduate degree courses in Queen’s can do so. We are prioritising applications from our students who have been impacted and will consider all applications based on the academic information currently available.
“We are also working closely with employers, encouraging them to continue progression towards graduate employment for these students until their degree classification can be confirmed. We have received a positive response from employers.”
The news comes amid industrial action by some staff which includes a boycott of marking and assessment. Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at universities across the UK have been engaged in long-running industrial action over pay, working conditions and pensions.
The action has included a number of strikes by some staff at universities across the UK, including in Northern Ireland. The marking boycott meant some UCU members were not taking part in activities including invigilating exams or marking exam papers.
In their statement this evening, Queen’s added: “We also held an Employer Briefing this morning to explain the situation, address any questions or concerns, and encourage them to work with those students who are holding conditional offers of employment. For those students impacted, Queen’s will provide a signed letter of explanation and accompanying transcript that provides evidence for employers that the student is in good academic standing and has completed their studies.
“We are doing everything we can to resolve the situation but, given this is a UK-wide action, we are limited in the scope of our response. We can understand the reasons for the strike but are disappointed that the people suffering most from this action are the students.
“The University has reached out to unions and made offers to reach a local agreement in relation to the marking which our staff representatives have been unable to accept. We will continue to engage in the hope that we can find resolutions to resolve this specific issue and aim to meet local representatives of UCU this week so we can deliver the best outcome possible for our students.
“This impasse has arisen following a breakdown in talks between UCEA (the employer’s body for Universities) and UCU. Underlying this is a gap between affordability to the sector and expectations from the Union.
“The last offer by UCU was a pay award that would result in an uplift of 5% to 8% depending on salary level. Queen’s University is one of five universities across the UK that has called for UCEA, the body representing the universities, to resume negotiations with the union. We have made clear we will abide by any agreement that is reached nationally.
“At a local level, Queen’s made a one-off covid related payment to all staff (except senior managers) of £1000 in August 2022, and an additional payment to help with cost-of-living challenges in January 2023, ranging from £500 to £750 for staff. Senior managers received no payments.”
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