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The UK government has urged both sides in a pay dispute at British universities to return to the negotiating table after industrial action that has seen marking suspended for months and students left without their degree results.
Education minister Robert Halfon on Sunday released a letter he has written to the University and College Union, which represents university employees, and the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association, which represents the educational institutions on pay matters, “strongly urging” them to resume negotiations and end a “damaging” boycott on exam marking.
“It is unacceptable that students, many of whom have already suffered significant disruption to their studies over recent years, face further disruption and uncertainty,” he wrote. “This disruption is particularly damaging to those students who are due to graduate and looking to enter the jobs market or progress to further study.”
Tens of thousands of students enrolled in British universities have not had their exams and coursework marked or received final grades since April 20, when the UCU, which represents 70,000 staff across 145 institutions, initiated a marking boycott.
The boycott is the latest escalation in a years-long dispute between universities and their staff over the erosion of pay, pensions and working conditions.
Dozens of universities have reduced the wages of staff who have taken part in the marking boycott.
The action has added to the disruption already faced by students, many of whom missed in-person teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UCU is demanding improvements to working conditions, including an end to “precarious” employment contracts, and has asked for a pay increase equivalent to the rate of retail price inflation plus 2 per cent, which comes to about 12 per cent.
It has rejected an offer of a 5 to 8 per cent pay rise for the next academic year and has called an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss further industrial action.
Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU, said the union had done “everything possible” to settle the dispute but the UCEA and university bosses “have made it clear they would rather throw students under the bus than settle this dispute”.
“If [the] Rt Hon Robert Halfon wants to see change he needs to get UCEA to use the sector’s huge wealth to support staff and allow students to graduate,” she said.
Raj Jethwa, chief executive of the UCEA, said the association continued to meet the UCU and other trade unions.
“Significant changes to the sector’s funding model over the past decade have placed increasing strain on industrial relations in recent years,” he said.
He added that the body has suggested a joint approach to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to mediate negotiations, and is expecting a response from the UCU this week.
