From the perspective of many observers, the current pay dispute has at its core a simple but complex barbed disagreement.
UCU and the other unions continue to assert that the sector can fund a higher pay uplift than UCEA delivered in the 2023-24 pay round and probably pay rounds prior to that. Higher education institutions, on the other hand, believe that this year’s uplift is beyond what they can afford. Indeed, I know that some institutions are deferring the pay uplift because they simply do not have the money to pay it.
If all this disruption is really down to a misunderstanding about the sector’s finances, it is surely a tragedy that such a misunderstanding risks students’ futures by disrupting their progression and graduations.
Of course, institutions are doing everything they can to support students and to mitigate the impact of the marking and assessment boycott. The vast majority of academic staff are not participating in the boycott and the vast majority of students will not be impacted by it. But it only takes a small number of staff to feel aggrieved or students to feel anxious to impact the whole campus community.
