Staff at the University of Liverpool will refuse to mark students’ work from Friday, June 18 in protest against the planned redundancies of 32 colleagues.
The university announced in January that members of teaching and research staff in the Health and Life Sciences faculty were due to be let go in May as part of reorganisation plans. The number of redundancies has since been reduced from 47 to 32.
The University and College Union (UCU) opposed the proposals, leading to three weeks of strike action by 1,300 staff until Friday, June 8.
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The exam season disruption came after 84% of members who voted in an April ballot backed strike action. Liverpool Guild of Students supported the UCU and opposed the redundancies.
A representative of the University of Liverpool UCU said: “We’re a little bit baffled about why this (cuts plan) is going ahead, because a lot of the people earmarked are just extremely excellent academics.
“It would be very, very easy for the management to withdraw these redundancies, there's no financial need for them.”
University management has asked staff to prioritise marking in the runup to the boycott.
The Liverpool University UCU committee member says this is reasonable, but they estimate as much as 80% of work is left to be graded in some departments.
They said: “Every single year, we're down to the wire, even when we mark solidly for three weeks. So when we've only got three days, it's basically impossible.”
The University has sought to address concerns about the impact of missing grades on the value of degrees issued by the University.
A spokesperson said: “It is important that we address these inaccuracies today to avoid the unnecessary stress and upset which is being seeded in our community.
"We are absolutely confident in the value of our degrees and have provided solutions which balance the importance of your progression, graduation, further study or job opportunities with the essential integrity of your degree.
“There are no circumstances in which we would risk the integrity and value of that award, and our decision making over the last 18 months has had that point at the forefront throughout.”
The University of Liverpool has assured final year students that they will still receive available grades on the main results day of 5 July.
The University told students in an email: “It is important to note that if your classification has decreased once all marks are received and all modules have been passed, the higher classification will remain in place regardless. This means your classification can only increase.”
The marking boycott will start on Friday unless all remaining redundancies are scrapped, according to the UCU. The union has set no end date for the boycott.
Among the staff picked for redundancy is Dr Luna Centifanti.
On the moment she heard her name was on the list, she said: “I just cried every day for months.
“I felt just completely betrayed, but at the same time, I felt ashamed, I thought there was something wrong with me. But when I told my line managers, again, they just told me, you know, ‘we had nothing to do with this. We didn't know anything. No one asked us about your performance. No one asked us about what you provide and what you bring to the programme'.”
Luna is a senior lecturer training the next generation of clinical psychologists. She has appeared on the BBC, presented a TEDx talk, and published 30 scientific papers since arriving in Liverpool from Durham University in 2016.
She says she was headhunted by the University of Liverpool with promises of support that she claims never materialised.
Professor Louise Kenny, Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the university said when reorganisation plans were announced earlier this year that it was intended “to help tackle the extreme health inequalities and unmet health needs in the Liverpool City Region”.
Luna Centifanti is on the steering committee of the Cradle to Career scheme, an ambitious plan launched last month by the Right to Succeed charity aiming to transform North Birkenhead from being one of the UK’s most deprived areas.
She says the stories she heard from people in Birkenhead about the “struggles that they have in accessing education and employment opportunities” resonate with her own experience growing up in poverty and with a “pride of place” as a Puerto Rican in New York.
She said: “I came to Europe for better opportunity, to live the American Dream to live in Europe. But I feel like the UK higher education system has worryingly emulated the American higher education system.
“It’s familiar in a horrifying way and it's not going to lead to a better research environment, (or) a better teaching environment."
