Reply to open letter from UoY UCU Executive Committee 10 May 2023

Response to letter regarding marking and assessment boycott

To the University of York, UCU Executive Committee

Thank you for your letter dated 28 April, which I received on 2 May. 

You will, in the interim, have seen my response to the open letter sent to me by Helen Smith on behalf of many colleagues across the University. 

I will not reproduce in detail comments I made there - except to restate two things: I know that colleagues across the University are pained that students continue to be caught in the crossfire of the protracted disputes the sector has seen; and I know too that the prospect of losing pay for participating in the Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) is very worrying for those affected and has prompted much concern across the University.

So, I should make clear why we have made that decision on pay deductions. This has nothing to do with ‘academic freedom’. Industrial action is a collective action - and it is designed to have a collective impact. It is the significance and consequences of this collective action that we considered when coming to the decision to withhold pay. The potential effect of the MAB is, simply put, to stop students from progressing and graduating. If graduating students are unable to certify their degree grades, some may not be able to take up job offers, some may face problems in taking up post-study visas, and others may miss out on places and funding for further study.

These are stark consequences, timed to have maximum impact at this critical point in the academic year, and affecting a cohort that has already seen so much disruption because of Covid. Given this, we felt we had to respond in a way that protects students from such severe impacts. 

Let me say that this situation - boycott and deductions - is an awful place to end up in. As I have said on many occasions, we as a sector need to work together to break out of the pattern of industrial dispute which has led us here.

And, as I have detailed to UCU branch representatives at York many times over the last couple of years, I have consistently sought to open out conversations on sector industrial relations in ways which I hope build space for wider agreement: 

• in advocating a ‘no ifs, no buts’ approach to restoring USS benefits, assuming a positive 2023 valuation (which USS is now confident will be the case); 
• in pressing UUK and USS to push back on the over-caution of the Pensions Regulator, working with the UCU (something again now happening - as colleagues will be able to discuss with the USS Board when it visits the University in May); 
• in building support within UCEA, amid considerable scepticism, to establish a national framework for discussion of casual contracts, pay gaps and workload; 
• in making the case to increase the level of pay award for 2023-24 to 5%, and to advance part of that to this February - while I recognise this lags behind inflation, it was again not a straightforward case to make, given the growing financial difficulty universities find themselves in; 
• and, working through UUK and independently, to build both the case and the relationships that might lead the UK Government in due course to fix the broken system for home undergraduate funding, which has eroded the financial capacity of universities to offer staff the pay rises they deserve. 

As you will also recall, I have repeatedly asked you as representatives of our local UCU branch to work with me in putting forward ideas into the national negotiating context. I do not wish to be a lone York voice on this. Just as I have not simply followed a UCEA/UUK line, that opportunity is open to the York UCU branch too, through or beyond your union networks. 

You asked whether I am with the York UCU Executive Committee or not. I think that is too narrow a question. We are now moving into a situation where everyone at York and across the sector loses: students affected by the boycott; staff losing pay; other staff torn by conflicting loyalties to their students and their colleagues; management and unions across the sector plunging deeper into conflict; and the sector as a whole for exposing itself to more external hostility through its internal differences.

I think we all have to stand back from this and break out of this negative spiral. We have long had a constructive, open dialogue with the York UCU Executive Committee, and I am grateful for the role you have played in that. I think colleagues and students across the University would welcome it if we - management and UCU - would put that to work in ending the MAB at York and moving ahead in cooperation to tackle the long-standing challenges of undergraduate funding and pensions regulation. 

I remain very concerned that the longer we take to build that cooperation in York and nationally, the more we weaken our ability to tackle these systemic issues, and the longer we expose our staff and students to division and stress.

To this end, I will seek every opportunity to maintain our constructive dialogue at York so that we can understand each other’s positions, and hope you will work with me to influence sector negotiations and bring about the fair and sustainable ways forward that will enable the sector to offer the rewards our staff deserve.

I understand you have shared your letter to me with your membership, and I will be grateful if you could also share this response.

Best wishes

Charlie
Vice-Chancellor