UCU Herts Site

Call to members – boycott exam boards!

Call to members – boycott exam boards!

We urge members to boycott the upcoming exam boards. We advise you not to attend, not to inform line managers etc in advance of your non-attendance, and if pressed to confirm attendance, not to reply. (If asked after the exam board to explain non-attendance, you should answer truthfully.)

The marking and assessment boycott is working. Last week, Cambridge University issued a joint statement with Cambridge UCU urging UCEA, the employer’s body, to return to the negotiating table. The effective boycott of our own exam boards will help us pressure UH’s senior leaders into following Cambridge’s lead.

External examiners are also resigning in solidarity. Last week, Professor Gabriel Reedy of King’s College London, a UH external examiner, resigned, writing to the VC:

“I note that UH has recently agreed not to pursue punitive pay deductions against colleagues participating in the marketing and assessment boycott; this is the least you could possibly have done in this situation. You, as university leaders, must publicly pressure the UCEA to return to the bargaining table and to advise other UCEA members to cease threats of illegal and punitive pay deductions for participation in the boycott.”

We have emailed members a copy of his full resignation email (Professor Reedy has agreed we can share it with you). Other external examiners have contacted us about doing likewise.

We urge you to boycott the upcoming exam boards. Let’s seize this opportunity to pressure UH into doing the right thing – into making a joint statement with UHUCU calling on UCEA urgently to return to the negotiating table so this dispute can be settled for the good of all.

In solidarity

Keith Seed

UHUCU President

Dragan Plavsic

UHUCU Secretary