Local representatives react to QUB and UCEA's treatment of students and staff in light of Marking & Assessment Boycott
Kirsty King
Local representatives have reacted to the news that 759 students at Queen’s University Belfast will not have their degrees confirmed as planned this summer, as a result of the University and the employer’s representative’s UCEA’s response to staff taking part in a UK-wide UCU Marking & Assessment Boycott.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll has hit out at the University following the revelations.
He called on the University to meet the demands of UCU members engaged in industrial action.
“Both Queen’s University and UCEA have treated staff and students with contempt,” Mr Carroll stated.
“The blame for any and all disruption lies with university bosses, who are destroying higher education by prioritising profits over education.”
“University workers have had their pay cut by around 25 per cent since 2009. Meanwhile, their pensions have been utterly destroyed. Precarious contracts have become the norm for most.”
“The UCEA has played a disgraceful role in this dispute, but Queen’s management cannot wash their hands of it. They have the money and the power to give workers what they deserve so that they can provide the education that students pay a small fortune for.”
He concluded: “I would urge Queen’s University to meet the demands of the UCU and its members so that students can obtain their degrees.”
Sinn Féin Councillor for Collin in Belfast, Caoimhín McCann, said: “Reports that students may not be able to graduate this summer has created stress and anxiety for many who need their qualifications awarded to move into employment or further study.”
“Queen’s University and the Universities and Colleges Employer Association (UCEA) must engage constructively to deliver fair pay for workers.”
He continued: “This delay is an outworking of the failure of university employers to engage constructively with staff on demand for fair pay and it must be resolved.”
“Workers should receive the pay that they deserve and students the qualifications that they have worked so hard to achieve.”
Paula Bradshaw MLA, South Belfast Alliance, said: “I am so sorry and frustrated that so many students have been impacted by the long-running pay negotiations at Queen’s University. I have received a lot of communication from students, in particular those who should be graduating this summer, who are concerned that they will be unable to move onto post-graduate courses or degree-required employment.”
“I have been in regular contact with the leadership of Queen’s and many lecturers to keep informed of the pay negotiations and impact of the marking ban on students receiving their final classification.”
“It is deeply regrettable that students, who have worked so hard over the course of their studies and have spent considerable amounts of money, have been left in such a sorry place.”
She concluded: “I would urge all sides to seek fresh avenues to negotiate and reach a compromise for the sake of the current and forthcoming students.”
In an email to affected students and a video posted on Queen’s social media platforms this morning, Vice-Chancellor of the University Professor Ian Greer explained that final year students in those areas where marks are not available for up to “40 credits” will be awarded a degree with “classification pending”, and that their classification will be determined and awarded “once final marks are confirmed.”
Furthermore, students in those areas for whom marks are not available for up to “80 credits” will be awarded a degree with “provisional title and classification pending”. The University will confirm the degree titles and classifications of those affected “as soon as possible.”
The Vice-Chancellor also provided an update that “less than ten” students will now be unable to graduate at all this summer, all of whom study Architecture.
In relation to ongoing industrial action at the University, he stated that he has written to UCEA “to encourage the resumption of national negotiation with UCU” and that “Queen’s has already committed to improving pay and conditions” for its staff, and to “working in partnership with the Unions.”
In response to the Vice-Chancellor’s words this morning, one lecturer at the University said, “It would be appropriate to acknowledge, in these messages touting local initiatives to improve conditions (many of which have yet to come to fruition), that these are the result of pressure from industrial action and the QUB branch of UCU. Not the generosity of QUB management.”
A protest was held yesterday evening outside the University “for fair treatment of students and staff”, on the day many students should have received their final degree classifications ahead of summer graduations beginning at the University on June 29. The organisers have announced that a second protest will take place on Thursday, June 22 at 5pm.
Kirsty King is Head of The Scoop and an English graduate of Queen’s University Belfast