Students face no-certificate graduation due to strike

Students at the University of Nottingham say they are unhappy an ongoing marking boycott means they will not receive a certificate at their graduation ceremony.

Last month some staff said they would stop assessment work after the university announced plans to cut jobs, with 2,700 employees put at risk of redundancy.

Now facing graduating without final-year work being marked, students have raised concerns that estimated grades will not fairly reflect their efforts and could take the shine off their graduation ceremonies.

The university, which has also been dealing with a major cyber-attack, said it had come up with "contingency regulations" so affected students "can still progress or graduate".

In a message to students, the university wrote: "Graduation events in July will be going ahead as planned and anyone who has been invited to register is welcome to attend.

"Due to the potential impact of missed marking, the events will be a celebration of your time at Nottingham.

"The experience will be the same as usual - you'll still wear a gown, cross the stage and be able to have photographs.

"The only difference is that your degree certificate will not be available and you will instead receive it by post."

Rob O'Connor, a third-year history student, said graduating without his most recent studies being assessed was "a slap in the face".

"I'm going to be doing a Master's at LSE [London School of Economics] in international political economy, and for that I need a 2:1," he said.

"I'm fortunate in that I already have pretty good grades for that, but they're right on the borderline between a 2:1 and a first, so if I had needed a first I would have been given a choice between either taking provisional marks or waiting until the strike is over.

"The graduation's still going to go ahead, but I'm not going to be handed a certificate, instead it's going to come as an email later on, which is not very satisfying."

O'Connor said he was "100% on board with the strikers" and praised lecturers at the university "who have worked so hard and provided such a high standard of education", but said he was concerned about the potential impact on other students.

"I think it's pretty egregious," he said. "I see it really as a serious failure of the management of the university.

"I'm one of the lucky ones, [but] I know plenty of people who are not so lucky, and this could affect their master's, this could affect [graduate] jobs, and this could affect potentially the course of their life."

Leacsaidh Marlow, who is in the fourth year of her integrated master's degree in natural sciences, said she and other students were concerned their hard work in the run-up to finishing their courses could count for nothing.

"I'm also disappointed that it was communicated to us so late," she said.

"I unfortunately lost my brother a month before finishing my degree, so I worked really, really hard to finish that degree on time and to graduate in July with my cohort, and the prospect of not receiving my actual degree at graduation is really disappointing."

Though her work has since been marked, Marlow said she only learned this would happen after taking her exams, which she said "was certainly an added level of stress".

While she sympathises with the concerns of striking workers and feels "no staff member does this unless they feel an absolute need to", she said not getting a certificate at the degree ceremony could still present problems.

"We can't really know the impact that will have, because we haven't been given the date that we will get our certificates, and for a lot of us we need those in order to apply for jobs," she said.

"The uncertainty is the real problem there."

Andreas Bieler, vice-president of the UCU (University and College Union) branch at the university, said staff members were "hugely sympathetic" with the students but strike action was necessary to protect academic standards.

"This management wants to teach the same amount, if not more students, with 700 fewer members of staff, and the impact on the learning qualities of students, the negative impact, is quite clear just from that figure alone." he said.

"We defend the jobs of our members, but equally we also defend the learning conditions of students."

The university said in a statement: "While we respect our employees' right to take industrial action, the fact this is being done to create maximum disruption for our students at an already stressful time is really disappointing.

"While many of our students will be unaffected by this action, we understand this will cause concern and want to reassure them we have clear procedures and support in place to minimise disruption."

Listen to BBC Radio Nottingham on Sounds and follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.