London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 10, 2025

UK universities union abandons national approach to marking dispute

UK universities union abandons national approach to marking dispute

UCU climbdown allows individual campuses to decide on strike action; 20 universities plan to go ahead

The long-running industrial dispute over pension cuts and working conditions at UK universities appears to be faltering, after union branches abandoned a national marking strike due to start this week that could delay students from graduating.

Last month, 41 branches of the University and College Union (UCU) backed a national marking and assessment boycott, supported by 86% of staff who returned ballots. But only 20 universities are going ahead with a boycott after opposition from branches and members led to national action being curtailed by the union’s executive in favour of letting individual campuses decide.

The universities of Edinburgh and Durham were among those to pull out of the boycott last week, with Durham’s UCU branch instead negotiating a local agreement. The deal included a payout of up to £1,000 for every staff member and joint statements and commitments on workload and pensions.


The national climbdown suggests enthusiasm for industrial action is waning among members, including the dispute over pensions that has been running since 2018. Branches have already taken up to 18 days of strike action in this academic year over pension cuts and working conditions.

A UCU message to members on Friday outlined the differences over how to proceed, including a deadlock within the union’s higher education committee. It said “overwhelming feedback from branches” meant plans for a further 10 days of strikes later this year would also be left up to individual branches.

The threat of a marking boycott has seen an aggressive response from some university leaders, with Queen Mary University of London said to be planning to hire external staff from an Australian higher education consultancy.

University managers at Leeds, Dundee and Sheffield have told staff they face having 100% of their pay docked if they take part in the boycott, which would include not marking end of year exams and dissertations.

Raj Jethwa, the chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, said: “Higher education institutions have a duty to protect their students and they are legally entitled to fully withhold pay for this boycott.”

The disputes have been overshadowed in recent days as universities began announcing redundancies and restructuring, over concerns they face funding pressures and are struggling to attract students.

Staff at Roehampton University said it planned to make 64 full-time posts redundant in a “strategic realignment” that will cut humanities courses such as philosophy and creative writing because of rising costs and falling income.

The University of Wolverhampton said it would stop enrolling students on more than 100 courses, including fine arts and fashion design. In a meeting with staff last week, Wolverhampton’s deputy vice-chancellor blamed the cuts on the university’s £20m budget deficit and a 10% decline in undergraduate applications.

Jo Grady, the UCU’s general secretary, told members: “This is not about financial need. This is about the effects of marketisation. It is about the capriciousness of research funding allocations and unregulated student recruitment.”

The sector faced a further blow last week as it became clear that UK universities would remain frozen out of the EU’s Horizon Europe research funding network with its budget of nearly £100bn. The EU has delayed allowing UK universities’ access to the network because of the UK government’s dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol, leading to UK academics having to withdraw from senior roles.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×