Fears some students at the University of Liverpool could miss out on vital grades due to ongoing strikes

There are fears some third year students at the University of Liverpool could miss out on vital grades due to ongoing strikes by tutors.

Hundreds of staff are staging another day of walk-outs in the long-running dispute over the loss of 24 jobs during the pandemic,

It means there could be a delay in marking - which some graduates fear may affect their final result.

Tabitha is one of them, she says despite the threat most students are backing the action :

"We aren't happy with the way staff that are facing redundancy have been treated and the staff who are on strike how they have been treated and lastly we just want them to know we won't go down quietly, we want our degree to reflect the hard work we've put in over the last three years.

"I'm trying to apply to a post-grad scheme and they require a two one but because of the marking boycott that the staff have been forced to partake in, the overall degree I'll be getting will be undermined because the assignments won't be marked properly".

A statement from Union UCU reads :

"The University of Liverpool has told staff taking part in a lawful marking and assessment boycott that it will withhold 100% of their wages, despite staff being willing to carry out a majority of their duties.

University management said they will withhold wages until staff complete marking all assessments affected by the industrial action, and has said it considers all other work staff carry out to be voluntary and not worthy of payment.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) began the boycott on Friday in a long running dispute over the university’s decision to sack 24 staff from the faculty of health and life sciences during the Covid pandemic.

UCU said it has never seen an employer withhold 100% of pay from staff participating in a marking and assessment boycott. The union said it is especially egregious as if the university removed the threat to dock pay, staff would be willing to perform most of their duties".

Meanwhile a University of Liverpool spokesperson said:

“The ability to award degrees is a privilege to us all at the University of Liverpool and there are no circumstances in which we would risk the integrity and value of that award. Students will receive available results in line with published deadlines and for the majority of students this will be on Monday, 5 July. We are asking students to visit our results webpages for more information and we will communicate detailed information about accessing results and how students will progress and/or graduate, ahead of the main results release day.

"We believe only a minority of staff are undertaking an assessment and marking boycott so we still expect most work to be marked on time. At the time of the deadline for declaring the period of strike action which recently took place at the University, the total number of staff taking action was 336. The University’s total workforce is approximately 7,000.”

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