UCU acknowledges that the current arrangement of Higher Education will have negative consequences for students, and wants to work with students in applying pressure to management to ensure that we can work together to resolve UCU’s dispute as swiftly as possible.
UPDATE: As of 16th June 2022, UAL-UCU has now agreed to end the marking and assessment boycott following conversations with UAL. We will be posting a statement soon.
UCU (University and College Union) has decided to escalate their national dispute around the Four Fights (equality, casualisation, pay and workload) and USS pensions to a boycott of marking and assessment at a number of UCU branches. The UAL UCU branch is currently participating in the boycott due to the dispute around the Four Fights. The boycott started on 23 May.
A marking and assessment boycott refers to stopping all marking and assessment processes that contribute to summative assessment decisions for students. This refers to stopping assessment and assessment-related work, and will continue until UCU gets action from employer body UCEA on national issues.
UCU acknowledges that the current arrangement of Higher Education will have negative consequences for students, and wants to work with students in applying pressure to management to ensure that we can work together to resolve UCU’s dispute as swiftly as possible. UAL UCU has written up a template email which you can send in support of UCU, which you can find here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_QNWe-VV6tbUQrygP5DB1L3ycVs7KeIVcyiiKE_kRsM/edit.
UAL UCU has also created a flyer to explain the marking and assessment boycott, which you can find and share here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uSYPCImB5J4AflK2vGrXuRNpQDhiGSjO/view
If you are aware of a marking and assessment boycott taking place on your course and have concerns about the impact this might have, you can discuss these with our Advice Service by emailing advice@su.arts.ac.uk or visiting: https://www.arts-su.com/advice/ for more information.