The university has committed to reviewing its supervision system, following the announcement of a supervision boycott in July.

The university announced its intention to continue meeting with Justice for College Supervisors (J4CS), the campaign group putting pressure on the university to introduce formalised contracts and higher pay, having suspended contact with the group in July. In the email statement, sent to all staff members, the university also committed to addressing “​​the issue of excessive workloads on both students and staff as a priority.”

The announcement was welcomed by the Cambridge UCU. “This is very welcome news and a promising step towards resolving the boycott of undergraduate supervisions,” the group wrote on Twitter.

The University is “extremely concerned about the impact” of the planned supervision boycott in Michaelmas, the email stated, admitting that the action “is likely to affect some subjects more than others”.

The statement stressed that the “colleges, in close collaboration with the University, are listening and are working hard to make progress” on a review of the supervision payment system. The university noted that it has introduced a payment of £100 to cover the training of all new supervisors.

J4CS’ announcement of the supervision boycott came following the rejection of their proposal for a new supervision payment system. Referencing these negotiations, the university stated that “discussions are continuing amongst Colleges about how to set rate increases in future years and the general affordability of the current supervision system arrangements.”

“We are extremely glad that the university and colleges have recognised the urgent need for reform of the supervision system,” J4CS told Varsity. “We hope we can find a resolution to our demands around fair pay and contracts for supervisors as quickly as possible.”

“We continue to build our boycott across all subjects, and we are prepared to take action if we need to,” the campaign continued. “But we hope that September can bring an acceptable agreement between us and the Colleges that will ultimately allow us to return to teaching”.

The university told Varsity: “There is nothing to add to the all staff email that was sent this week. These issues will be discussed in due course in meetings with the J4CS representatives”.