MAB FAQs

Please see our separate FAQs on HR's MAB Individual Case Review

AUGUST 2023 - FAQ UPDATE

1. We advise UCL UCU members not to boycott the marking of new assessments such as the Late Summer Assessments, Postgraduate Taught marking, and other incoming work.

UCL have told us that they will deduct 2 weeks’ wages for boycotting LSAs and, given that our mandate for industrial action is due to expire at the end of September, there seems to be little value in putting off postgraduate marking that will still have to be completed by the normal deadline.

2. That existing marking and assessment which has not been carried out due to MAB will not be marked unless and until UCL management withdraw their threat of punitive pay deductions. Please also note that the new 2 week deductions announced by UCL do not apply to already-boycotted work.

3. If UCL management continues to demand completion of previously boycotted marking without removing the threat of punitive pay deductions, we will use our existing legal mandate to call for strike action during Induction Week (25-30 September).

We have written to UCL to ask to convene an emergency negotiation meeting to discuss UCL’s ongoing threats of deductions and we will report back as soon as we have more information from that.

Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB), national and local FAQs

The national UCU has produced a comprehensive list of national FAQs about Marking and Assessment Boycotts to help members understand the MAB. We are following the national guidance, which you can access these FAQs online here. The MAB started on 20 April. There is no end date.

In addition we have put together the below FAQs using questions from previous UCL UCU General Meetings and suggestions from members, about UCL specific practices.

Please tell us if you are taking part in the MAB (as a MABer or a Pledger - it is important!)

Logistics

1. How will a MAB work at UCL ?

A: Marking and assessment at UCL varies a great deal from course to course, dept to dept. in terms of timing, assessment formats, and staff involved in the process. There cannot be a National or even UCL UCU guideline that could cover all of these variations.

The basic principle is to refuse to do work that involves setting of contributory (summative) assessments, marking those assessments, or supporting those assessments (e.g., processing papers and marks). Any member of staff involved in those processes is called on to take part in a MAB.

The MAB covers any contributory work that needs to be assessed, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, coursework or final examinations. It includes final grade work and work towards progression. It covers activities such as marking, second marking, invigilating of exams, participation in exam boards, and processing of exam or coursework marks.

A key principle for effective and supportive MAB is that the detail of its implementation is taken together by colleagues at an appropriate ‘level’ or location. In many cases this will be at module, programme team, and/or department level.

Therefore we urge colleagues in Programme teams and departments to meet as soon as possible to discuss how they will implement the MAB in their programme/department. This does not mean that everybody involved in a particular set of marking has to participate in the MAB for it to be effective. Rather, those who do participate need to work together and support each other in implementing it. UCL UCU reps will be able to discuss plans with individuals and groups, and provide support where required.

None of us want to carry out an MAB. We all recognise that an MAB will be upsetting for students but it will also be upsetting and stressful for us. That’s why we must work together on this action.

2. Do MABs work?

A: Yes. Some of the more important victories of the union have been won by MABs, especially in combination with strike action. In 2006 a MAB was successful at forcing employers to give us a proper pay settlement. Over the summer of 2022 over 20 UCU branches won local concessions and disputes using local MABs.

3. How are UCL UCU protecting their members from UCL’s deductions?

A: As a reminder, UCL’s current plan is to deduct 50% of salary for 73 days, 24/04 to 06/07, regardless of whether you are boycotting one essay or 400, regardless of whether your marking starts in April or June. We believe that this is absurdly disproportionate and punitive, but at the present time this is UCL’s threat to all staff.

We have set up a Solidarity Pledge Network. This means that we will clear one volunteer to take part in the MAB for every 6 people pledging to donate half a day’s salary per week for the deductions period. This will mean all 7 persons in the group will lose maximum 5.2 days’ pay (rather than any one of them losing 36.5 days pay). There is a form to fill in and either become a MABer or a Pledger - in this way we can share in the action even if we do not all boycott. This is solidarity in action.

Those who cannot take part directly in the MAB themselves will be asked to support people who are, by donating to a fund that covers salary in case UCL decides to withdraw 100% pay. We will also ask members to turn up and show solidarity support at regular interval meetings and in events designed to keep up morale for MABers.

4. When and how to declare your participation in the MAB?

A: We strongly advise colleagues not to inform management that they are going to participate in the MAB, or are thinking about participating, in advance of taking action. Do not fill out the main UCL form. Whatever management has said, the Government says you do not need to report your participation in industrial action until you have actually done so.

Please also note that you do not have to decide that you are participating in the MAB before any marking work becomes due. You may well decide that you wish to participate at the last minute.

You should reply truthfully when asked by your line manager or head of department after the point you have decided to participate.

5. When does my participation in the boycott MAB start?

A: Contract law would say that it begins when you first breach your contract of employment with UCL by declining to carry out a duty you are obliged to by contract. In the case of marking, this is usually when marking is overdue or an event is boycotted. It ends when that contractual obligation no longer exists (e.g. if the work is no longer required because work is reallocated or students are progressed without the work, if the dispute ends and you work normally, or if you decide to return marks). In the case of a one-off duty like a PhD viva, if the viva goes ahead without you, or is rescheduled, the contractual breach is also rectified by the employer, and arises on the next viva date.

UCL's current plan for deductions does not follow these legal principles. UCL says that it does not matter when your personal work begins or ends. Everyone is deducted the same amount (half a days' pay for every day from 24 April excluding annual leave and bank holidays) for participating in the MAB, regardless of their actual marking duties and when those duties take place, and regardless of their impact on students.

For the purposes of notifying your line manager that you are taking part in the MAB, UCL UCU argues in line with the law, that the relevant date is whenever the work is finally due (marking deadline, date of an oral exam, date of an Exam Board etc). At that point you have taken industrial action by not doing that work, and so at that point you are obliged to answer honestly that you have done so. But until that point, a worker might genuinely be undecided about whether they will take part in industrial action or not.

Whatever UCL says, just as staff can choose to strike on the strike day, staff are not obliged to decide about participation in industrial action until the time to take that action arrives. It is also unlawful to threaten staff in contemplation of industrial action, a line which we believe is crossed by several of UCL’s statements.

6. Should we ‘mark and park’?

A: “Marking and parking” entails doing the marking and then just don’t hand in the marks to UCL until the MAB is over. We do not recommend this. The law treats the marks university staff produce in the course of their job as the property of the university. So if UCL thinks those marks are available, it can legally demand that members supply them, as they are legally its property. For that reason, our position is that our members should not generate and record any marks until the MAB is over.

7. How long will the MAB last?

A: There is no declared end date to a MAB. The end will depend on negotiations with employers and the resolution of the dispute.

8. Will members have to mark work even after retirement, or leaving UCL, if their retirement date falls during MAB?

A: No. We advise members to take industrial action in our disputes, and imminent retirement does not change this. Indeed, being in a position of not owing UCL any legal obligations after the retirement date takes the pressure of such colleagues. If, once the dispute is resolved, the colleague wishes to assist UCL with outstanding work as a goodwill gesture, this is fine. But there is no obligation to do so.

Impact on Students

9. How will students be affected? Will they get their grades eventually?

A: This is a marking and assessment boycott, not a learning boycott. It is a key principle that it should be reversible, so if the dispute is settled assessments can be marked, with no adverse impact on students. UCL staff will continue teaching, assist students with work, give feedback on drafts, and so on.

We hope that a nationally negotiated settlement will see all marking completed with no pay deductions. However, it is also possible that employers will suspend regulations and progress students without grades, or employ non-UCU members to give grades.

Staff will also give references for those applying to do further study or applying for jobs, using existing transcripts and evaluation of students.

10. How will a MAB affect international students planning to apply for graduate visa extensions?

A: This will only impact international students if the boycott is still going in September (when visas renew). UCL have many many tools at their disposal to stop anyone losing their visa (automatic progression, paying someone else to do the marking, ENDING THE DISPUTE!).

So, this is not a matter for which markers should consider themselves individually responsible. International students are not likely to see any effect. See also UCU’s national FAQs, no. 22.

What do we need to boycott?

11. Are we boycotting feedback on drafts or formative work?

A: No. UCL defines summative assessment as ‘formal assessments where your results count towards your degree’. Feedback and formative assessment and work can go ahead as normal, as can normal teaching duties. We are not boycotting students’ learning.

In its communications, UCL has confused feedback on formative assessments in preparation for exams or essay submissions, which we are not boycotting, with feedback on summative assessments that justify marks, which we are boycotting. This allows them to present the MAB as targeting student submission preparations, which it does not, and in that way wrongfully frightens students.

12. If we have already agreed to examine a PhD as an external - does this fall under the MAB?

A: It does not fall under the MAB call.

Royal Holloway UCU FAQs: “UCU members were balloted in relation to their principal employer. However, the MAB has been called nationally, so all institutions will be impacted. If you have already entered into a contract for external examining at an institution (hypothetically ‘external university’) other than the institution which is your principal employer and your UCU branch (hypothetically ‘your university’), then you should carry out your obligations under the external examiner contract but also do the following:

contact the UCU branch at ‘external university’ and ask them to send you any details of local contingency arrangements;
ask the UCU branch at ‘external university’ to put you in contact with a UCU rep in the department for which you are an external examiner;
contact ‘external university’ and state that you as an external examiner are not prepared to sign off marks that have not been derived according to normal quality assurance procedures;
If you have concerns about the quality assurance process at ‘external university’ please write to the head of that institution in accordance with Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) guidance.

13. If we have agreed to examine a PhD as an Internal Examiner or an Independent Chair of a viva should we refuse?

A: This is covered by the MAB call. A viva is a summative examination unlike supervision and feedback, and so included in the MAB.

14. Is participation in Extenuating Circumstances panels part of MAB?

A: No. Extenuating Circumstances (EC) panels and other support systems in place are there to support student welfare and give them the best opportunity to participate in their learning and submission of work.

This support is not directly related to summative marking or grade decisions, even if it may have an indirect impact on these. We are not boycotting students, their learning, or their wellbeing. Our target is the UCL summative grading and progression infrastructure.

15. Is attending Oral Examinations covered by MAB?

A: Yes they are included. We have updated our previous advice, now that UCL is recording oral examinations and other practice-based assessment events, which will allow other contracted staff to generate marks from the recordings. Our advice is to not participate in the examination process.

16. Are Academic Misconduct panels (plagiarism, or examination irregularities) covered by the MAB?

A: Yes. Academic Misconduct panels are focused on assigning, modifying, or allowing the confirmation of marks, so we are boycotting them. They are part of the mark allocation and verification process. There is a formative and supportive element to plagiarism panels (e.g., helping students understand better working practices) but their core function is grade verification, not student wellbeing.

17. Should Board of Examiner chairs hold exam board meetings if the MAB goes into June? There will be some marks to approve from those not in the MAB - do we ignore them?

A: Exam board chairs should not hold meetings (i.e., organise and run them themselves). Participating in the MAB also means no member should attend BoE or similar meetings.

Appendix 1: Special Advice for PGTA workers

PGTAs and the MAB

The below assumes that UCL sticks to its plan of making 50% flat rate deductions. We are challenging this and are confident that we can force UCL to reconsider a plan which has made it an extreme outlier in our sector.

For the purposes of the Marking and Assessment Boycott, PGTAs should be treated like any other member of staff (see UCL FAQs here). This means that they are entitled to take part in the MAB and will be deducted pay at the same rate as any other member of staff if they do so - i.e. they will lose 50% of their salary for the period of the MAB. PGTAs who are members of UCU will also be entitled to claim from our Hardship and Fighting funds just like all other members (remember it's free for PGTAs to join UCU!).

Key points:

UCL have committed to ensuring that no one's pay will fall below the London Living Wage (£11.95 per hour). So, if people on low salaries take part in the MAB, UCL will only deduct pay up to the London Living Wage level. This means that most PGTAs will actually lose less than 50% of their salary if they take part in the MAB.
Where module leaders or administrators refuse to process assessments as part of the MAB, thus making it impossible for PGTAs to actually do their marking, PGTAs will not lose pay as they are considered "available and willing" to work. In this case, PGTAs do not need to take part in the boycott as they cannot do the marking anyway.
PGTAs should refuse to take on the marking of colleagues who are taking part in the boycott, and they cannot be punished for doing so. This is the same for all UCL staff.
Where UCL has made an offer of work to a PGTA, they cannot retract that offer once they find out you are taking part in the boycott. This means that if you have been contracted to mark 100 exam scripts and choose to boycott it, you will still be paid 50% of your salary for that period. UCL cannot retract that offer of marking work (to put it slightly differently, they cannot enforce a 100% pay cut).

There seems to be some confusion about the 50% deductions because, for some PGTAs, almost all of their work is marking. But this is irrelevant:

UCL is making flat rate deductions irrespective of how much marking you actually do during this period. So, the fact that a PGTA does actually spend a large proportion of their time marking doesn’t affect the rate at which they get deducted. They will still lose only 50% of their salary. This is the mirror image of the professor who does no marking, but boycotts one PhD Viva and loses 50% for the whole period.
Please note that the legal position is that UCL is cutting pay not reducing hours. You are still considered to be "working" your normal number of hours, but your pay is being reduced by 50% for "partial performance of contractual duties". It doesn’t matter whether that pay comes from 20 hours of marking, or 10 hours teaching + 10 hours marking, or 19 teaching + 1 hour marking. The deduction will be a flat rate of 50% off your total pay over the period of the boycott.

For PGTAs on different contract types:

Most PGTAs should be on averaged fractional FTE contracts. Which means that their “hours” per week are an average of the total number of hours they work over the length of their contract, including “marking hours”, “seminar hours”, and everything else. So, if a PGTA is on a 0.05 FTE contract, then they will lose 50% of their 0.05 FTE salary during the period of the boycott (topped up to the London Living Wage level). This is the same as any other member of staff.
For PGTAs who are paid via monthly time sheets (guaranteed minimum hours) or who do marking on separate contracts (Additional Hours Forms, Form 6s etc) then the same principle should apply. Remember that UCL cannot retract an offer of work, so PGTAs should fill out their timesheets/forms as normal and then notify their line manager that they are taking part in the boycott. They will then lose only 50% of their salary (topped up to the London Living Wage level), even if they actually do no work in that period.

One issue which is still unclear is how and when these pay deductions will be made. UCL have said they will start processing deductions in our June payslips, but many PGTA contracts will have expired before that point. In theory, UCL could claim that the PGTAs have been "overpaid" and ask to be paid back. The best way of stopping that from happening is by building a strong boycott and winning the dispute.

Appendix 2: Special Advice for Migrant Workers

See the National UCU dedicated webpage for migrant staff taking industrial action.