Keith Jones

Keith Jones emailed all staff earlier today. You can read the full text of his email below.

Yesterday (14 June) was results day for our final year students. While we hope that they have been able to celebrate their achievements, we recognise that for the majority, yesterday was a difficult day. 

As a result of the University and College Union’s (UCU) national marking and assessment boycott, almost 70% of our finalists have been informed that they cannot yet have their degree classification and will have to wait until all assessments have been marked. They will receive an ordinary degree in the meantime, if they have enough credit. 

This is profoundly upsetting, deeply unsettling and extremely difficult for hard-working students wishing to progress with their lives, whether that is into jobs or postgraduate education, or other routes. 

The Vice-Chancellor has received many emails from upset finalists whose education has been disrupted both by the pandemic and persistent industrial action, who are not now receiving a degree mark. 

As you are aware, the boycott is part of a national dispute. We have a very positive working relationship with our local UCU branch and we issued a joint statement two weeks ago calling on national bodies to re-start negotiations to bring the dispute to an end. Unfortunately, this has not happened.  

The University’s sole focus now is to ensure that all outstanding work from finalists is marked as soon as possible. I want to thank colleagues who are going above and beyond to help us achieve this. 

With best wishes,

Keith Jones 
Interim Provost and Chair of the Joint Negotiating Committee