Staff at Stirling University are taking part in three days of strike action over a decision to deduct half their wages for taking part in an ongoing marking and assessment boycott.
The walkout began yesterday (Tuesday) and will run through until Thursday in protest at the move from the university - and follows similar strikes at other universities including Edinburgh, Dundee, and Queen Margaret.
The boycott began on April 20 as part of the Universities and College Union’s dispute over what it describes as a real-terms cut in its latest pay offer and complaints over working conditions including casualisation, unmanageable workloads and pay gaps.
It said the 50 per cent deduction to staff wages did not reflect the percentage of time staff participating in the boycott would normally spend marking and assessing students’ work and that staff continued to work their regular hours.
The ongoing boycott impacts all marking and assessment related work including the administrative processing of marks and exam invigilation.
Mary Senior, the UCU’s Scotland official, blasted Stirling University’s approach - urging principal Sir Gerry McCormac to re-engage in talks over the dispute and “stop trying to circumvent lawful industrial action short of strike”.
A Stirling UCU spokesperson added: “The University of Stirling is trying to downplay the impact of the MAB on graduating and current students.
“The university policy on marking dissertations and deciding awards was recently changed – not to improve quality but to undermine legitimate industrial action.
“The objections of staff, and the concerns raised by subject examiners and external examiners in terms of quality, rigour and fairness, were simply ignored.”
“Senior management at the University of Stirling repeatedly state that a minority of staff are participating in the MAB.
“Support for the MAB is significant at Stirling, but it is true that many staff simply could not afford to join this industrial action as they are already struggling with the cost of living crisis.”
Scottish singer-songwriter Karine Polwart was set to receive an honorary doctorate from the university at a ceremony on Tuesday - but has now refused the invitation in the wake of the ongoing strike action.
Ms Polwart said: “The graduating students of summer 2023 have endured a disrupted, isolated and, at times, traumatic experience of university education, encompassing as it does the entire Covid pandemic era.
“The prospect of them graduating without conventional measures of degree excellence, or in circumstances that call the quality and accuracy of their degrees into question, must be a source of anger and dismay for many of them.
“The steady and incremental erosion of University and College sector wages and pensions, the casualisation of the teaching workforce, unsustainable workloads, and a sector-wide failure to address equality pay gaps erodes the quality and integrity of our higher education system in the UK.
“It harms not only staff but students. And it has a profoundly negative impact on our wider culture and society.
“It would be the deepest hypocrisy for me to receive an Honorary Degree in recognition of arts and social activism during a period of industrial action.”
In response, a Stirling University spokesman said: “The University is disappointed that this additional strike action is taking place.
“Our focus is on ensuring all our graduating students and their guests can celebrate and enjoy their graduation day, and we are grateful to all those staff across the institution who have worked hard to make this happen.
“A small number of staff continue to participate in the marking and assessment boycott, as part of sector-wide industrial action.
“Marking and the facilitation of assessments form part of the contractual duties of teaching staff. Staff who are not fulfilling their contractual obligations will have part of their pay withheld.”
