Photo: Flickr, Plashing Vole

Academic staff may boycott exams and coursework

The University and College Union (UCU) have proposed an exam and coursework boycott yet again as staff were warned that they will lose tens of thousands of pounds from their pensions.

The UCU is balloting members in 67 universities for industrial action to challenge changes to pension schemes.

There was conflict between the UCU and Universities UK (UUK) last year which nearly resulted in a similar boycott. Despite the resolved issue last year which resulted in a two percent pay rise for academic staff, action is being proposed for a similar debate on pensions, which is part of the pay contract of academic staff .

The UCU will be asking members to whether or not they will support plans for a marking boycott and to refuse to set exams. This action could result in academics refusing to mark students’ coursework and exams later in the year.

The ballot opens Wednesday 1 October and closes Monday 20 October.

UUK has proposed these changes to pensions due to an expected deficit in the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

However, the UCU claimed that the way in which the deficit figure was determined did not include areas where the scheme had increased in value. According to the UCU, the pension fund’s investments have increased by £8 billion since 2011.

Their analysis also showed that a 40-year-old academic earning £75,000 annually would lose roughly £230,000 from their pension fund were these changes to go through. However universities have called these claims premature, citing the fact that negotiations over the changes have not yet begun.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UCU, said: “Staff see their pensions as deferred pay and are understandably angry at the impact these proposals would have.

“We are making it very clear in this ballot that if members back industrial action, and there is no negotiated solution, we will be looking to quickly move to an assessment and exam boycott.”

However a spokesman for the Employers Pensions Forums said: “Reform is necessary to address the sizeable and continuing deficit in USS.

“The employers’ objective is for the scheme to remain affordable, attractive and sustainable for both employees and employers, while addressing the deficit and reducing the risk of future contribution increases.”

A spokesman for the University of Warwick stated that it was too early to comment on action which had not yet been approved by ballot. He did point out however that “UK universities have faced such forms of action in the recent past and therefore have experience of how to respond to them.”

Dan Ashley, head of press for the UCU, said of the ongoing process: “We have been working with UUK for years on a number of issues.”

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