The pandemic ruined my A-levels – now the marking boycott casts a shadow over my degree

‘International students requiring a degree to renew their visas have been left in limbo.’ Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

This year’s graduations, universities claim, will be indistinguishable from those of previous years. Except there’s one glaring problem: as a student there isn’t much to celebrate. Currently, a marking and assessment boycott is affecting 145 British universities and, like many of the thousands of students graduating this summer, I am set to leave without a formal classification.

For the class of 2023, the same year-group whose GCSEs were reformed in 2018 and A-levels cancelled in 2020, this marks the end of a deeply dispiriting educational journey.