Staff strike threatens university exams

May 1 2006 By Tony Collins, Birmingham Mail

CITY universities are having to bring in extra staff to ensure that students' exams are not disrupted because of industrial action.

Lecturers belonging to the Association of University Teachers are refusing to mark or, in some cases, set exam papers in a dispute over pay.

The union, which says their members' salaries have fallen dramatically in recent years, has rejected a six per cent pay increase spread over two years.

Students have become increasingly concerned at the impact which the industrial action by the AUT will have on their futures as they prepare to sit vital exams.

The city's largest academic institution, the University of Birmingham, said it was introducing "contingency plans" to try to ensure that students were not adversely affected.

A spokesman said: "We are currently taking every measure to minimise disruption to students that is the result of AUT action being taken as part of a national dispute."

The university said they were making every effort to ensure that final year students can graduate.

She added: "For those students whose coursework and examinations are due to be marked by a member of academic staff taking action, the university has contingency plans in place which will draw on other members of staff from the same or related academic fields to mark those papers."

A final year software engineering student at Birmingham said they had been been badly affected by the AUT's decision not to mark any assessed work.

Jacob Daly claimed a 60-page essay about a software project was to be marked by a member of staff with no background knowledge of the work they had under-taken over the past year.

He said none of their work was being marked by the project supervisor.

"This is a dispute over pay between the lecturers and universities, but the way things are materialising the students are the only people this is causing disruption to," he added.

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