What is a trade union?

Trade unions are membership organisations that provide a range of support to members in exchange for a membership fee. The University and College Union (UCU) describe the role of trade unions as:

• Providers of information, advice, and guidance to members for work-related problems
• Providers of training, insurance, financial services, and legal advice to members
• Campaigning on issues.

It’s worth remembering that as a student, you are automatically a member of the Students’ Union (SU), which is there to make sure you all have a voice. Find out more about RHSU.

The University and College Union, also known as the UCU, is a British trade union and is the culmination of two unions merging. These unions were the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and NATFHE – The University and College Lecturer’s Union.

Read the blog written by your Students’ Union (SU) about who the UCU are and why we talk about them.

Find out more about UCU can be found on their website.

UCEA provides its member institutions with advice and guidance on employment relevant to the higher education sector. Its purpose was revised in 2023 and UCEA describe it as:

UCEA is the leading voice on employment and reward matters in the UK Higher Education sector. We support our members to be employers of choice through collaboration, advocacy and expert advice.

Find out more about UCEA on their website.

Nationwide strike action is taking place because the UCU voted in favour of industrial action in relation to:

• Pay and working conditions
• Pensions.

This is a sector-wide dispute and not just relevant to Royal Holloway. 

The pensions dispute has since been resolved after proposals were agreed with employers in April 2023 but action is ongoing regarding pay and working conditions.

The next national strike action is due to take place between Monday 25 - Friday 29 September 2023. Not all members of staff take part in industrial action, and some students will face little or no impact.

Before this, action short of strike has been taking place since Wednesday 23 November 2022 and the UCU had a mandate for the action to continue from Thursday 20 April 2023 which included a marking and assessment boycott (MAB). MAB was called off on Wednesday 6 September 2023.

Action short of strike consists of UCU members only working to contract; not undertaking any voluntary activities; not covering for absent colleagues; removing materials related to, and/or not sharing material related to, lectures or classes that will or have been cancelled because of strike action; and not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action.

There is a possibility your teaching activities could be cancelled with or without notice, but you should assume that your teaching is taking place on strike days unless you have been told otherwise. From experience, most teaching goes ahead as normal.

If you find that your classes have been cancelled without notice, we’ve got a range of activities taking place across the week on both our Egham and London campuses and more information on these can be found here. 

To find out about the local impact of strike action in your School, we recommend that you speak to your School Office in the first instance, and they can direct you to the relevant place.

There are also a lot of resources available to you. We will provide regular updates on the intranet and in the student newsletter which is sent to your University email address every Sunday at 6pm and the SU have written blogs about the UCU dispute which can be read here.

Only our employees can go on strike. If you are a member of staff you can take part in the pickets. If you are not a member of staff, you are not legally included in the strike action. You can choose to engage in a peaceful protest in a chosen location but you should not join the picket. This applies whether you are a member of NUS or not.

If, as a student, you choose to show your support and as a result miss your lecture you will be marked absent.

Professor Julie Sanders, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, alongside other senior members of staff meets regularly with the Royal Holloway branch of UCU to try and reduce the impact of any strike action taken on you as students.

Our aim is to minimise the impact of strike action has on your studies and assessments.

The Centre for the Development of Academic Skills (CeDAS) has some useful online learning tools which you can find here, and we will be working with academic staff to make sure we are aware of which activities should be prioritised to ensure you meet the learning outcomes of your course. 

If you would like to make a complaint about how the strikes are impacting you, please contact your Personal Tutor or School Office in the first instance, or email IndustrialAction@rhul.ac.uk.  

If you have received a reply from your School and you feel that your concern or complaint cannot be resolved, please submit a formal complaint under the Student Complaints Procedure. 

As part of your complaint, you will need to explain what efforts you have made to resolve the issues you have raised so far. Please remember that a response to a formal complaint will only be possible once the action short of strike has ended and we are able to ascertain the full impact of the action on you and whether the learning outcomes of your course have been met.

Picketing is a peaceful protest and an opportunity for those who are striking to tell the public about why they are striking.

We encourage you not to feel intimidated passing picket lines as we expect our staff who are picketing to conduct themselves in a peaceful and non-threatening manner.  Each picket should have a picket supervisor to manage this.

If you feel threatened or intimidated for any reason, please contact Security on 01784 443063.

The University will be deducting the equivalent to 50% of the salary of staff participating in the marking and assessment boycott. This will be implemented as a 100% deduction, followed by a 50% ex-gratia payment to affected colleagues. The payment is ex-gratia and without prejudice to the right to make a 100% deduction on the basis that partial performance is rejected.

Royal Holloway’s approach to pay deductions as a result of participating in the action short of strike marking and assessment boycott is consistent with other institutions across the Higher Education sector.

Due to action short of strike which has been taking place since Wednesday 23 November 2022, and the UCU’s mandate for continuous action from Thursday 20 April 2023 which included a marking and assessment boycott (MAB), we were unfortunately unable to publish all outcomes on the original advertised date in July.

On Wednesday 6 September, the UCU withdrew their notice of the MAB which means it’s been called off. We are now working closely with Schools to ensure that all students with missing outcomes are updated as soon as possible.

Details on what your results mean depending on your year of study can be found here.  

Usually, your module grade will be shown as a percentage, but in some cases, there may be a letter code. The definitions of these codes can be found here. 

The Extenuating Circumstances Committee was not impacted by the marking and assessment boycott and so, Extenuating Circumstances (EC) applications have been considered by the committee as normal and will determine whether applications are accepted or rejected. 

Where an EC has been accepted and the module mark the application links to has been confirmed, a decision on the module outcome will have been made taking the EC application into account. 

Where the module mark linked to the EC application is not yet available, the EC application will be held, pending confirmation of your module mark. 

If you fail a module, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t progress or be awarded your degree.  

Where there are enough of your module marks that have been confirmed to determine whether you can progress or be awarded, or determine what retake options are available to you, your progression outcome in Campus Connect will outline the options that are available to you - including the type of retake and the date you can take it. 

If you have marks pending, it may not have been possible to determine a progression outcome for you yet and you will need to wait until your marks are available for your outcome to also be determined. As soon as these are available, the University will publish them on Campus Connect and you will be contacted. 

We are working hard to ensure that no student is disadvantaged due to their results being delayed. 

If all the module’s assessments have been marked, your overall grade for the module will be calculated as normal, as outlined in the module’s specification which can be found here.  

Where assessments may be missing marks due to the marking and assessment boycott, Departments may scale a module or provide an allowed outcome to provide you with a result where learning outcomes have been met. 

Scaling 

If the marks for a module assessment are missing, then the Department Assessment Board will review the available marks and may decide scale marks within the module in line with the regulations.  

Scaling is where the marks for an assessment or module are adjusted for a group of students, to ensure that the academic standards are equivalent to previous years. This may mean assessments completed earlier in the year count for more of your degree than originally planned where the learning outcomes of the course have been met. The decision to scale a mark within a module is a matter of academic judgment.  

Allowed outcome 

You may see AL which stands for ‘Allowed’. This is a Pass without a mark attached. It is used when you have satisfied the examiners that you met the learning outcome however the marking was incomplete so percentage marks could not be provided. 

I need confirmation of my results for a job, placement opportunity or further study – what can you supply to support me until my marks are available?

You can contact your School and ask them to supply you with a letter to support you when speaking with your potential employer or institution. The letter will outline the impacts of the marking and assessment boycott on your degree course and verify your performance in modules where marks have been confirmed. You can request this letter through your School Office here.

No student currently completing an undergraduate degree in a UK university will be denied entry to a Master’s programme at Royal Holloway for which they have been accepted, on grounds of missing marks due to industrial action - where existing marks indicate that they are likely to meet the terms of their offer.   

Please forward a recent transcript to applicants@royalholloway.ac.uk explaining that you are missing marks due to the industrial action.   

If you require a Student visa to study in the UK, you will also need a letter from your university confirming that you are highly likely to complete your degree. 

You can contact your School and ask them to supply you with a letter to support you when speaking with your potential employer or institution. The letter will outline the impacts of the marking and assessment boycott on your degree course and verify your performance in modules where marks have been confirmed. You can request this letter through your School Office here.

As a University, we put in place mitigations designed to protect students’ achievements and our courses while maintaining academic quality. These were: 

• Prioritised and reallocated marking within academic departments.
• Put in place a set of Emergency Regulations to help the University determine module marks and outcomes as soon as possible. You can view these regulations on the student intranet here. 
• Delayed the release of undergraduate results to Wednesday 5 July and agreed on a new schedule of timings for assessment boards to give as much time as possible for marking to be completed.  

We are committed to protecting the quality of your degree/mark as much as we can and to providing you with your final module marks and outcomes where your course learning outcomes have been met.  

Many modules will not need to be marked using the mitigations and will be marked as normal.  

All outcomes have been marked thoroughly, adhering to specific criteria, and undergone moderation. External examiners and assessment boards have been involved in the assessment process, further ensuring consistency. Where our courses have accreditation or are associated with a professional body, we always adhere to and respect their external requirements. 

In cases where some students may be missing marks, we have made every effort to provide a final module mark by assessing the quality of the work and the extent to which the learning outcomes were met.  

If you would like to make a complaint about how the action short of strike marking and assessment boycott has impacted you and your studies, please contact your Personal Tutor or School Office in the first instance, or email IndustrialAction@rhul.ac.uk.

If you have received a response from your School and you feel that your concern or complaint cannot be resolved, please submit a formal complaint under the Student Complaints Procedure. 

As part of your complaint, you will need to explain what efforts you have made to resolve the issues you have raised so far. Please remember that a response to a formal complaint will only be possible once the action short of strike has ended and we are able to ascertain the full impact of the action on you and whether the learning outcomes of your course have been met. 

There should be no problem with student visas as we will continue to monitor attendance as normal. If any classes or contact points are missed because of the strike it is recorded as authorised absence. If you have any concerns, contact the International Student Support Office InternationalAdvice@royalholloway.ac.uk.

There should be no problem with student visas as we will continue to monitor attendance as normal. If any classes or contact points are missed because of the strike it is recorded as authorised absence. If you have any concerns, contact the International Student Support Office InternationalAdvice@royalholloway.ac.uk.

This action short of strike should not affect your current Student visa. 

If you wish to apply for a Graduate visa (also known as a post-study work visa) you must meet the following conditions: 

• Be inside the UK when you submit your visa application  
• Hold a valid Student visa  
• Spend the relevant qualifying period in the UK (see below) 
• Have successfully completed your course within the UK and received notification from the University that we have reported your successful completion to the UKVI (see below).  

If you have been awarded your degree on the results date of Wednesday 5 July 2023, we are expecting to report your successful completion to the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) within 5-10 working days and you will be e-mailed once this is completed so you may apply for the Graduate visa.  

If your degree remains pending on the results date of Wednesday 5 July 2023, we will not be able to report your successful completion to the UKVI at this time, but this will be completed as soon as possible after your degree has been awarded.  

The UKVI have also made some concessions to help mitigate the concerns of international students whilst the marking boycott continues, and the following will apply where a student’s permission is about to expire:

1. The UKVI will consider exercising discretion and will hold Graduate route applications made before the applicant’s results have been received, provided that the results are received within 8 weeks of the application being made.
2. Students who do not know when they will receive their results due to the boycott will be able to apply to extend their permission to remain the UK whilst they wait for their results.

For further information, please visit our international student support page here. 

Fees are not based on a calculation of a per-lecture or per-tutorial basis, and they include the full range of services and support available.

We understand that you might be concerned about the strikes but please don’t worry - whilst some teaching and services may be impacted, there will be lots of activities to get involved in across our Egham and London campuses. These activities will help you build friendships, look after your health and wellbeing, develop your academic skills, and support you to discover a part-time job or volunteering opportunity. Discover what's on. 

We have a Industrial Action Hardship Fund to reimburse students for expenses incurred for things like travel, parking, childcare etc. that were necessary to enable students to attend classes, and then the class didn’t take place because of the strike action. To access this fund, please keep your receipts for any cost incurred during the strike action. More information is available here.

Any money withheld will be held in a fund and we will consult with the Students' Union on how best to use this money for the benefit of students. One way the fund is currently being used is to refund students who have incurred expenses to attend classes that were then cancelled due to strike action.

If you would like to make a complaint about how the action short of strike marking and assessment boycott has impacted you and your studies, please contact your Personal Tutor or School Office in the first instance, or email IndustrialAction@rhul.ac.uk.  

If you have received a response from your School and you feel that your concern or complaint cannot be resolved, please submit a formal complaint under the Student Complaints Procedure. 

As part of your complaint, you will need to explain what efforts you have made to resolve the issues you have raised so far. Please remember that a response to a formal complaint will only be possible once the action short of strike has ended and we are able to ascertain the full impact of the action on you and whether the learning outcomes of your course have been met.

Yes. You should attend classes as normal unless you have been told otherwise.

Activities that are taking place will be monitored as normal and if you do not attend class this would count as non-attendance.

To minimise the impact staff taking strike action and working to contract will have on your studies we will be discussing with academic staff those activities that should be prioritised to enable you to meet the learning outcomes of your course. While meeting the learning outcomes, it may not be possible to cover some material in the same detail. We will work with academic staff to identify this material and ensure that it does not form the basis of an assessment or exam. During the strike action we will monitor closely which classes take place so that we can understand the impact of the action on your course.  

We understand that you might be concerned about the strikes but please don’t worry – whilst some teaching and services may be impacted, there will be lots of activities to get involved in across our Egham and London campuses. These activities will help you build friendships, look after your health and wellbeing, develop your academic skills, and support you to discover a part-time job or volunteering opportunity. Discover what's on. 

Staff going on strike do not need to tell the University until after they have taken strike action, however they may tell you if your classes are going to be impacted.

Please do not assume that your lecturers will be going on strike unless they have told you. Not all members of University staff are UCU members.

It is difficult to get detailed advance notice of which classes might be affected, as staff on strike do not need to tell us until after they have taken strike action.

If you receive a message from your lecturer that your class has been cancelled, then you do not need to attend unless you have an in-class assessment such as a test or presentation, in which case you should still attend.

Our Disability and Neurodiversity team will continue to provide their regular services to support you. The team can be contacted at disability@royalholloway.ac.uk.

Student Wellbeing are the professional service with responsibility for advising and supporting you with all aspects of your health and wellbeing, so please email the team at wellbeing@royalholloway.ac.uk.

Support services such as the Library, Student Services Centre and CeDAS should be operating as normal.

There will be lots of activities to get involved in across our Egham and London campuses. These activities will help you build friendships, look after your health and wellbeing, develop your academic skills, and support you to discover a part-time job or volunteering opportunity. Discover what's on.