Row erupts as university staff across Scotland and UK end controversial marking and assessment boycott

The industrial action led to staff losing pay and students graduating with unclassified degrees

A controversial marking and assessment boycott by university staff across Scotland and the UK has come to an end.

The University and College Union (UCU) announced it had withdrawn the action, and would now move to five days of strikes later this month. Union members at universities across the UK launched the marking boycott in April amid a dispute over pay and conditions.

The move led to a bitter row with management at many institutions as staff pay was docked and some students, including at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, staged protests after being forced to graduate with unclassified degrees.

Graduates from Edinburgh University celebrate after a graduation ceremony at the McEwan Hall in the centre of Edinburgh.

UCU said it would be re-balloting to allow it to “escalate the dispute by taking further action this year and into 2024”. However, some academics took to social media to express their disappointment at the news.

Paul Langley, professor of economic geography at Durham University, said: "Difficult day for everyone who participated in MAB [marking and assessment boycott] in hope of making a better future for students and staff in UK universities.

“Hope defeated (for now) by planned VC intransigence, illegality and academic irregularities, divided UCU leadership, and too many non-participants.”

Some were calling for UCU general secretary Jo Grady to resign, including Newcastle University historian Sarah Campbell. “I cannot think of a more disappointing way to end the MAB – I'd love to see the break down of results based on who participated and who didn't,” she said.

“We had members holding strong who have sacrificed months of 100 per cent pay cuts. I'll say it again – Jo Grady needs to resign. Now.”

Announcing the decision, Ms Grady said: "We are left with no option but to strike during the start of term because our members refuse to stand by while pay is eroded and staff are shunted onto gig-economy contracts.

“It is shameful that vice-chancellors still refuse to settle the dispute despite a year of unprecedented disruption, and have instead imposed a pay award that staff overwhelmingly rejected. Universities are richer than ever, generating tens of billions of pounds in income and hoarding billions more in cash deposits.

"But they won’t give staff their fair share. A pay award of 5 per cent is a huge real-terms pay cut and is substantially lower than school teachers received.”

Raj Jethwa, chief executive the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA), said: “UCEA welcomes the vote by UCU members to end the marking and assessment boycott. The result, with 60 per cent voting to stop the boycott, suggests that UCU members no longer wish to support the HEC’s tactic of inflicting harm on students.

"There is now an urgency for UCU members who had participated in the boycott to prioritise marking for those remaining students who have still not received the necessary results to graduate in 2023/24. It is, therefore, disappointing that, at the same time as ending the boycott, UCU is attempting to inflict maximum damage before its mandate expires, by calling strike action for late September.”