Important update for returning students on industrial action

Dear students,

I am writing with an update on industrial action.

Firstly, the good news.

Marking and Assessment Boycott ends

I know some of you have been affected by the national marking and assessment boycott and have delayed results. 

The University and College Union (UCU) has now called off this boycott, so we are working with Departments to complete marking as soon as possible. 

We need to balance this with this semester's teaching commitments, so whilst some of you may receive marks soon, we also plan to use this semester’s Consolidation Week (w/c 30 October) as a further opportunity  to finish off marking and get any delayed results to you.

Strike action w/c 25 September

Secondly, I’m sad to tell you that UCU has called for further nationwide strike days this semester, affecting universities across the country, even as national negotiations over pay and conditions continue. 

• The planned days of action are the five days from Monday 25 to Friday 29 September. 

This is the first week of teaching for many of you. I know this may all be sadly too familiar, but it is difficult to assess whether you will be affected and to what degree, as we do not know about the levels of take-up for action. Staff are not required to tell us in advance if they plan to take part. And those who do participate might not take part for all five days. Some departments may see significant impact, others none at all.

What you need to do

Please look out for any messages from your Department or School advising you of changes to your studies, but in general you should plan to attend all learning activities as usual, unless you are informed otherwise.

We will minimise the impact on you as much as possible, which may include rescheduling teaching, providing complementary teaching, supporting learning in other ways, or making adjustments to assessment.

Keep updated

Once again, I very much regret any disruption that some of you may experience. I’m sorry that we still face issues at York arising from a long-running national dispute. 

We continue to update the Industrial Action web pages with news and announcements, together with FAQs and background information about why this is happening, and what the University is doing to influence the national negotiations and support your education.

I will also update you if there is further industrial action later this semester - but we know that the earliest this could be is mid-November, if the UCU wins another mandate for industrial action in the new ballot it is currently planning. 

In this period without industrial action, we will do our best - in line with the ideas I set out together with our local UCU colleagues in a recent article - to influence the national negotiations and bring this series of disputes to an end. 

Best wishes,

Charlie Jeffery
Vice-Chancellor