UCU industrial action to take place from 20 April

Some staff will be taking part in a period of continuous ‘Action Short of Strike’ (ASoS) from 20 April 2023. For this period of industrial action, ASoS will include a marking and assessment boycott for the first time.

This means that some staff may not carry out marking and associated assessment activities/duties, including not providing informal guidance/feedback to students concerning their likely mark/grade or assessed progress. This also covers other assessment-related work such as exam invigilation, the processing of marks and preparation for and running of exam boards.

The impact is likely to vary according to your particular course and department. Not all UCL staff are members of the union, and the vast majority of staff will be assessing and marking as usual.  

Our priority is to minimise the impact of this boycott and we will do everything we can to support your educational outcomes and wellbeing. In previous disputes, we have always ensured that students are able to complete their studies and graduate. 

We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that this is the case and we will be putting in place a number of mitigation measures, for example, using alternative markers, providing guidance to examination boards, reviewing individual students’ marks profiles against achievement of the programme learning outcomes, and condoning missing marks where we can demonstrate that the learning outcomes have already been met. 

You can find out more about what this means for you below. 

When will the industrial action take place?

There will be continuous Action Short of Strike (ASoS) from 20 April 2023. 

What is industrial action?

Industrial action usually happens when a dispute in the workplace can't be resolved through negotiation. Industrial action is when workers:   

• go on strike 
• Industrial action is 'official' if it is formally backed by a trade union and members of that union are taking part in it, such as UCU
• take other action, like refusing to do overtime (known as ‘action short of a strike’) 

What is action short of strike (ASoS)?

Action short of strike is when staff take other action different to a strike, such as limiting some work-related activities. UCU has confirmed that their planned action short of strike will consist of: 

• working to contract 
• not undertaking any voluntary activities 
• not rescheduling classes and lectures cancelled due to strike action  
• not covering for absent colleagues  
• removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to, lectures or classes that will be or have been cancelled as a result of strike action a marking and assessment boycott.  

 

For this period of industrial action, ASoS will include a marking and assessment boycott for the first time. This means that some staff may choose not to carry out marking and associated assessment activities/duties, including supporting students as they prepare for assessment. This also covers other assessment-related work such as exam invigilation, the processing of marks and preparation for and running of exam boards. 

What does this mean for me?

It is difficult to predict the impact of this period of industrial action because not all UCL staff are members of UCU and not all members will take part in a marking and assessment boycott. The vast majority of staff will be assessing, marking and processing as usual.     

The impact of ASoS will vary for students, with different levels of engagement according to course, subject and departments across the institution. We will do everything we can to minimise the impact of the action on you and support your educational outcomes and wellbeing. In previous disputes, we have always ensured that students are able to complete their studies and graduate on time.  

We will assure that you will not be assessed on academic content that has not been taught due to industrial action. We are also issuing guidance to examination boards to ensure that disruption is taken into account when considering the individual graduation and progression profiles of affected students.   

When dealing with any problems related to examinations and assessments, UCL has experience of being fair to students while also ensuring the integrity of our academic standards. We have established an Examinations and Assessment Contingency Panel and, in line with other universities, will be introducing emergency procedures to help ensure that students are not disadvantaged in their assessments and examinations as a result of industrial action.  

Your examination timetable which was published on Monday 27 February details your upcoming exams and assessments. You should assume these exams and assessments are going ahead, unless your department tells you otherwise.    

There is a possibility that in order to ensure you can graduate/progress, minor changes might be made to some forms of assessment. You will be given plenty of notice and this will only be done if it is in students’ interests, for example to ensure that you can graduate successfully. In instances like these, this will be communicated directly to you by your departments.    

If you have missed any classes due to industrial action, UCL will take this into account either in the assessment that we set for you or when we consider your marks. Our examination boards have procedures that they can use to make these decisions. There is a possibility you may experience some delays in receiving your results if we are not able to complete all our marking and results approval processes in the usual way.   

For further information, UCL has provided the following staff guidance on managing the impact of industrial action on assessment, progression and award.   

Do staff taking part in ASoS get paid?

ASoS which comprises a marking and assessment boycott, represents a partial performance of staff’s employment contract and, as such, amounts to a partial performance of duties. Marking and assessment activity is a significant proportion of workload at this time of year and to reflect this UCL will withhold 50% of pay during the period of 24 April – 6 July from those who participate in the marking and assessment boycott.  

How is UCL tackling key issues?

We recognise that the current economic and geo-political environment means that these are exceptionally challenging times for our sector, for UCL and for our community. We are committed to driving improvements in each of the areas raised in the ballots and working constructively and collaboratively with our trade union partners.    

We are taking action on a number of key issues including staff pay, pensions, job security, workload, pay gap and equality. For more information on how we are supporting our community please see the UCL HR website.