Both sides in the UK’s pay dispute are struggling to retain a united front amid the “chaos” of the marking boycott, with universities and union branches increasingly prepared to break ranks to ensure students can graduate.
Queen’s University Belfast became the first institution to settle the dispute locally last week, with academics resuming marking after agreeing a 2 per cent pay rise on top of the contested nationwide increase of between 5 and 8 per cent.
The closely watched move came after a string of statements released jointly by universities and their University and College Union branches, the latest of which have been more explicit about the need to reopen talks on pay; something the Universities and Colleges Employers Association says most institutions can ill afford to do.
“The situation actually seems quite chaotic, which is inevitable in a sector without any real planning, central control or direction,” said Glen O’Hara, professor of modern and contemporary history at Oxford Brookes University.
