On Monday 17 February the University and Colleges Union (UCU) announced that its members across the UK may boycott the preparation and marking of students’ assessments from 28 April.
The University is disappointed that the Union is considering this action because of the obvious impact it is designed to have on students’ education and progression. We are committed to do all we can to ensure that students are not disadvantaged by such action.
The timing of this threatened action will enable the University to put in place a range of mitigation strategies to reduce the impact on students. If UCU members do participate in industrial action the University has clear policies for stopping pay for partial withdrawal of labour. These will be fully enforced.
This remains a national dispute which, in recent weeks, has caused minimal disruption to educational activities at our University.
At Southampton, approximately a quarter of academic staff are members of UCU. Based on the information provided by members taking industrial action, less than 7 per cent of our academic staff are participating in the current industrial action.
The University takes this latest threatened industrial action seriously, and will continue to work productively with local representatives of the UCU and the other Unions on a number of important issues – for example addressing the pay of our lowest paid staff, the implementation of our agreed academic reward project, and a number of equality and diversity initiatives. We will continue this dialogue to achieve the best outcomes for our students and staff locally.
We will also be working closely with SUSU and other colleagues throughout the University to put in place the arrangements necessary to ensure that our students are not disadvantaged by any industrial action and continue to receive a world class education at Southampton.