Students in a Welsh university have shared their fears of graduating without knowing their grades due to a union marking boycott. The marking and assessment boycott is the latest action short of striking by the University and College Union in their ongoing UK-wide pay and working conditions dispute.
“I know that I’m certainly not enjoying the uncertainty because it does impact what I end up doing next year,” said Cardiff Labour Students president Zacchaeus Hayward. “It is very difficult because there’s a fair few of us including myself who might graduate without knowing their grades.”
Students have been stuck in the tussle between employers and the UCU since November last year when the union announced its first strike action over nation-wide pay conditions and pension cuts.
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Bethany, a first-year undergraduate student at Cardiff University, said: “I already had to resit my A levels to get into university. Then when I came here, it was a bit upsetting to find out that finally getting into university after Covid and everything, I don't have lectures on or I don't have seminars on.”
Students who are due to graduate this year have reported difficulty applying for jobs and for higher education courses which are grade specific. Alice, a final year undergraduate student at Cardiff University, said: “Now that I'm submitting CVs, a lot of places need specific grades of all of my modules and a full breakdown of everything, but I can't give it to them.”
“That means that it's definitely shortening the range of job applications that I can submit. Especially as some jobs have grade requirements, it's definitely uncertain because I can't show my potential,” said Alice.
Zacchaeus, who is also a final-year student at Cardiff University, said that he’s unable to apply for postgraduate studies due to being unclear on his grades. “I am applying for master's somewhere else and the marking boycott basically means that I don't know if I'm going to get in,” said Zach. “There's also the element of graduation and students who graduate might end up receiving a blank piece of paper as opposed to an actual degree certification until a bit later.”
“For people moving on into the world of work or different institutions, I think there's going to be a bit of difficulty in terms of saying to an employer or an education provider ‘trust me, I'm going to get great grades’,” he said.
A Cardiff University spokesperson said it is doing everything possible to ensure that students get their degrees on time, but they cannot rule out any delays. “However, it is important to stress that the majority of students will receive their degrees. If a student does not receive their degree on time they will be told of any delay by their Head of School,” they added.
The University and College Employers Association (UCEA) has said that the UCU’s marking boycott is “timed to try and damage students as much as possible.” However, UCU member Estelle Hart disagrees.
“It's absolute nonsense,” says Estelle who is also a postgraduate researcher at Swansea University. “Nobody wants to take industrial action. We don't want to lose our pay for one thing and we certainly don't want to damage students.
“It is the responsibility of the employer. They are refusing to negotiate, they are the people who are keeping this action going.”
UCU has claimed that some universities might resort to ‘shortcuts’ in grading which could devalue the quality of degrees recorded. Estelle claimed that there have been cases where experts like heads of schools have marked dissertations where it is not their specialist area and some cases when universities have outsourced the grading process.
“There’s something ridiculous about paying quite a lot of money to ask somebody to come in and mark degrees when you're claiming the fact that you don't have enough money to pay your staff fairly,” said Estelle.
She added: “Our concern is that universities are pushing the burden of this back onto students, so people will graduate with a predicted degree. It's less getting a degree, and more like getting a participation award.”
Zacchaeus said: "These are degree classes which in the first year had Covid, and now in the third year, we're going through protracted industrial action.
“People might come to think that if our final exams are marked by external assessors who might not even understand our subject that what we've got are effectively Mickey Mouse degrees. I hope it won't happen, but the perception of the quality of the degree we receive will be quite badly impacted unless the universities get back to the negotiation table."
A Cardiff University spokesperson said it does not restrict marking to just university staff, but ensures assessors are qualified. “Our Heads of School oversee the arrangements for marking and ensure that assessors (those marking assessments) are appropriately skilled and qualified to do so,” they said. “This option is available every year. Whilst these are exceptional circumstances, this happens in most years and is common with many other universities.”
“Our priority is to ensure that students receive degrees which are valid and reliable and are of an equivalent standard to degrees awarded in previous years,” they added.
Bethany said: “It’s like a slap in the face because rather than fixing the conditions of lecturers, the same tutor, they're just finding a solution to the problem that's not as good.”
Alice added: “It's shocked me that they'll go this far rather than giving their own kind of loyal employees actual good standards and working conditions.
“I would much rather have my lecturers who know me and have done and have taught this course for many, many years mark my work than some kind of random independent people.”
The spokesperson for Cardiff University reiterated that the pay dispute was a national issue and that Cardiff University alone cannot solve it independently, adding: "We are committed to the joint national consultation process and to finding an affordable solution that recognises the highly valued contribution of our staff.”
When asked about the tools provided to studentz to deal with the boycott, they added: “UCU’s actions are designed to cause maximum disruption and uncertainty which makes it difficult for the University to provide clarity for our students. We are updating students via our student intranet and by emails from the University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience. In addition, our schools are also providing updates and responding to individual concerns."
In an open letter to the UCEA, the National Union of Students expressed their support for the UCU, and asked for staff to be “paid fairly and have sustainable working conditions.”
“We now urge UCEA to return to negotiations with UCU and put forward an appropriate offer which represents the true value that staff bring to our universities up and down the country,” read the letter.
Zach added: “I want to say to UCU members, we see you, we hear you, and we as students are standing with you. And then I want to say to universities to get to the negotiating table, work out a fair deal and make sure that the disruption that students have experienced all the way through our degree is minimised from this point onwards like they should have done months ago.”
