'I’ve seen what they’ve gone through. We want to do all we can to get them across the line'Tobia Navia for Varsity

by Eric Williams Follow Eric Williams on Twitter & Taneesha Datta

This article is 2 years old

The class of 2020 - the cohort of students that will leave Cambridge for good this summer - have had an education marred by uncertainty. A global pandemic took their admission to university out of their hands. Now, an industrial dispute threatens to have the same impact on their graduation.

In an airy conference room at the Old Schools on Trinity Lane, pro-vice-chancellor for education Bhaskar Vira spoke to Varsity about the University’s plans to mitigate the effects of the marking and assessment boycott that is hitting universities across the UK.

The University has proposed two Graces that would trigger what pro-VC Vira calls “emergency powers”.

What are the Graces?

The Graces, as proposed by the University, are mitigation measures designed to allow some students to graduate on time in spite of the marking & assessment boycott.

If passed, they will allow some students to complete their exams and graduate without papers being fully marked. Results would be accepted even if only a simple majority of examiners are present.

They would also allow for delays in examinations, and delays in marking and publication of exam results.

College supervisions will not be affected. Students should also expect teaching and feedback on coursework, so long as it comes short of grading for assessment. Regarding how students should be approaching Easter term, pro-VC Vira has emphasised that students should approach it like any other exam year, “getting all examined work submitted on schedule”.

When will mitigations be implemented?

The University Council put forward its proposals in March. However, over 170 members of the Regents House - the academic governing body of the university - signed a petition calling for the proposals to be put to a vote.

The vote is taking place from 3rd May to the 15th May, with members of the Regents House deciding on what mitigations could look like.

Will students graduate on time or not?

If the Graces pass, some students will be able to graduate without their exams being fully marked - but only if they meet a ‘minimum standard’.

Some students will be more protected than others under the University’s proposed mitigation measures.

One example of this would be those studying courses where a percentage of their final grade is shared across multiple years - with candidates already having banked a significant proportion of their final marks.

Vira points to degrees under the 0-30-70 weightage structure. Current third-years under such degrees already have 30% of their total mark accounted for. If enough of their third-year papers are marked, says Vira, these students will likely be able to demonstrate that they have achieved 40% overall – which is the usual threshold to pass. Students under these circumstances would be able to graduate on time.

Another example would be students studying courses where there is a low rate of staff participation in the boycott. Engagement in the boycott will vary department to department, based on how many academics choose to take part. Consequently, in some courses, students will be more likely to reach the minimum required marks than their peers would be.

Under the proposed mitigation measures, students who fall short of the threshold will not be graduating on time this year. Even for those who are able to graduate on time, degree classifications will follow only once all papers are marked.

Even under the proposed measures, some students will be left graduating later than their peers. Those taking courses or papers with high staff engagement in the boycott, or those whose grade is entirely weighted on final year exams, are particularly vulnerable to being left behind.

Vira’s expression turns grave when we point this out. “I won’t pretend that our measures will take care of 100 percent of students,” he says.

The stakes are especially high for finalists: late graduation or delayed degree classifications may risk scholarships, grad jobs, conditional offers for higher study, and - for some international students - visa statuses.

The pro-VC admits that “there is an inequality” in whether or not students will be able to graduate on time this year, but goes on to say: “It’s an outcome not of the mitigation measures but of uneven participation in the industrial action.”

Vira serves as Director of Studies for third-year Geography students at Fitzwilliam. “They just handed in their dissertations yesterday,” he tells us. “I’ve seen what they’ve gone through. We want to do all we can to get them across the line.”

There remains no certainty on what mitigation measures will look like, until the vote in the Regents House closes on May 15th.

Who voted against the measures?

The University has argued that their proposed emergency measures are necessary. Without them, the Council has stated that the University is facing “very significant reputational and regulatory risk”. These include “reputational loss” from donors, students, and prospective students. They also include risk of action from the higher education regulator, the Office for Students - although academics against the proposals have criticised this claim.

Some academics in the Regents House - the academic governing body of the university - oppose the University’s mitigation measures. However, academics against the proposed measures have not pushed for all mitigation measures to be abandoned. Instead, they argue that granting the University the ability to delay examination procedures is a more “proportionate” response to the boycott. They also argue that the university’s measures, and their uneven impacts on students, are potentially “incompatible with equalities legislation”, and that planned changes would undermine the university’s “academic standards”.

The Cambridge Students Union (SU) have opposed the University Council’s proposed mitigation measures, on the grounds of supporting the strikes and claiming that the measures compromise exam integrity.

Cambridge UCU have called the University’s proposed measures “strike breaking”, and claimed that they demonstrate that “management is willing to torch the University’s long established academic standards in order to break industrial action”.

Could the UCU call off the boycott?

The boycott will not end until either the industrial disputes are settled, the union calls off the boycott, or the national mandate for industrial action ends.

In the dispute, which focuses on pay and conditions, the UCU is not negotiating with the University of Cambridge, but instead with the employer's representative - the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA).

The UCU are demanding a pay rise of 12%, or RPI inflation plus 2%, whichever is higher. They are also demanding action to end zero hour and temporary contracts.

Strikes last year did lead to concessions from the UCEA, with a pay offer worth between 5% and 8%. However, the UCU criticised the package as a real-terms "pay cut", before members went on to vote to reject the offer.

However, there are signs that dispute resolution is possible. Pensions were part of motivation for past industrial action - but progress has now been made to resolve that dispute. Employers’ representative Universities UK (UUK) had implemented major reforms to the pensions scheme. According to the UCU, the new policies wiped 35% of staff’s future retirement income. However, national strikes earlier this year led to new proposals from UUK, including commitments to prioritise restoring retirement benefits, which UCU members have now voted to move forward with.

Pro-VC Vira stated the University “wants to encourage employers and unions to keep working together to resolve the other issues”.

However, Cambridge’s recent decision to impose punitive pay deductions on staff engaging in the boycott has sparked criticism from the UCU over how the university is handling industrial relations.

Cambridge UCU President Michael Abberton told Varsity: ​”Even though applying deductions might be legal, it does not mean that it is healthy in terms of industrial relations”. Abberton went on to state: “Most employers, Cambridge included, are trying to see if the threat of punitive deductions will deter markers from engaging in the boycott”, but that “the best solution would be for Cambridge and other universities to go back to UCEA and press for further negotiations and an offer that staff can accept, so that we can call off the action as soon as possible”.

Since last Wednesday (03/05), the Regent House - the university’s governing body made up of academics - has been voting on the Graces.

Opposition to the measures has raised concerns that the emergency powers might undermine “academic standards”, given the alterations to the usual assessment process. But Vira argues that these claims are “fundamentally misguided”.

“There is no attempt to dilute standards,” he says, claiming that he is “fully reassured that if the majority of examiners are present, they will exercise academic judgement sensibly”.

The measures have also garnered criticism from the UCU, who have called them “strike-breaking”.

Discussing opposition to the University’s proposals, Vira is clear: “Staff have the right to participate in industrial action, I fully respect that right. But my duty is to get our students through their degrees…so our measures are designed to support our students.”

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It is also possible that the boycott could be called off before its impacts are felt, if the industrial dispute is resolved.

Progress has been made recently in the dispute on pensions, and we ask Vira about the possibilities for a resolution on pay and conditions. In response, the pro-VC emphasises that similar strides could potentially be made: “At the moment, disappointingly, negotiations are suspended,” he points out. “We really want everyone to get back in the room…we don’t want to spend our time locked into industrial disputes".

The route forward is far from certain, but Vira suggests the university is doing everything it can to minimise the potential impact on students. “That’s what I’m working really hard to do,” he says.

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