A new student campaign attempting to prevent disruption to exams and graduations has gathered over 1,300 signatures at Cambridge, and is planning a rally at Great St. Mary’s tomorrow at midday (22/05).

Students from at least twelve major universities across the country, including Oxford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, LSE and Manchester, have signed open letters to demand that universities take action to resolve the marking boycott. A joint demonstration across the country is also being planned on Monday ⁠— pressuring vice-chancellors to ensure they graduate on time.

The #SettleTheDispute campaign, launched last Sunday (14/05), is calling for university senior administrative teams to issue a public statement calling on the national employers’ representative, the UCEA, to re-enter negotiations on the dispute behind the marking boycott.

The industrial dispute is over pay and working conditions. The University and College Union (UCU), whose action comes under a national strike mandate, are lined up against the national-level employers’ representative, the UCEA. As it stands, the UCEA has refused to re-enter negotiations with the UCU.

The campaign in Cambridge has gathered steam after students heard last week that “emergency power” mitigation measures will not be used.

One third year student who signed the petition told Varsity: “Our year group has constantly faced disruption throughout our education since GCSEs. So I’m definitely frustrated about the marking boycott.”

They continued: “But I think frustration is good if it’s directed towards the re-opening of negotiations and a settling of the dispute rather than towards any academic staff”. Discussing how they will be attending the rally at Great St. Mary’s on Monday, the student went on to say “it’s a shame we’re having to do this during peak exam season, but I think it’s necessary”.

Anna, a second year student who also signed the petition, told Varsity: “I really feel for final year students. I can’t imagine how scary it is to not know if you can stay in the country or not”. Discussing how the current situation is impacting one of her friends, who is Canadian, Anna described how “she’s worried she won’t be able to get her grades to do another course back home.”

She continued, stating that: “We’d all like to see some concrete action being taken by the university to prove that they are actually concerned about student and staffs’ futures.

Edward, a second year student, explained his decision to sign the open letter. “My friends and I are all experiencing huge uncertainties about what the marking situation will look like this year.” He continued: “The UCEA’s current decision not to negotiate has the potential to damage hundreds of students’ futures, and the university has failed to use its frankly huge national platform to support both the staff and students that are being impacted.”

Varsity also spoke with the third year students involved in setting up the Cambridge #SettletheDispute campaign.

Bella Cross, a third year History and Politics student representing Cambridge’s campaign, told Varsity: “I am delighted, yet unsurprised that we have hit such a high number of signatures in such a short time. I hope the university understands the scale of this anger is caused by their refusal to take meaningful action to let us graduate”.

Cross continued: “All it takes is for reasonable negotiations to take place for this MAB to get called off, so the best way we can hope to graduate is in putting our energy behind getting the vice-chancellor to use the university’s voice to get the UCEA to restart negotiations. That is the only way we get our work marked fairly and get to graduate on time as planned.”

Varsity also spoke to one student, Sam Hudson, who believed that students should take a different approach from the letter ⁠— encouraging students to instead campaign for financial compensation from universities.

“I suggest fellow students take constructive action and campaign for the compensation from universities which we deserve”, Hudson said before stating, “no change will ever result unless universities themselves face financial ramifications for the disruption which they have generated.”

Student pressure comes after university’s senior administrative team have been meeting with the University and College Union (UCU) every day this week, in attempts to come to an agreement on how to approach the situation. In an interview with Varsity, Cambridge UCU President Michael Abberton said that Cambridge’s senior management “have immense influence” and can “affect the dispute nationally”.

The University has issued a series of FAQs to students about the marking and assessment boycott.