Lecturers- will examiners consider the effect of strikes?

[Suprima]

…should they go ahead as planned?

First of all- I support the strikes!

However, as a Wednesday and Thursday student- I’m due to miss a fair whack of tutorials and wondering what impact this is going to have on my grades. The lectures will be online, but no in person discussion as part of a seminar.

I’m planning on doing some zoom unofficial seminars with my coursemates on strike days- but I’m worried about conceptual clarity with certain topics if we miss the face to face time with our professor.

So just curious- do you think there will be any consideration when marking exams for students affected by strike action?

All I can see online is that strikes aren’t a MC.

Any inner knowledge and thoughts would be appreciated!

Not a lecturer but I work at a uni. Each department is required to produce plans showing how they have mitigated for the strikes (eg rescheduled teaching, pre-reordered lectures, amendments to assessment) so making examiners aware would be part of this.
Post-results, my uni has a specific ground in the academic appeals procedure that relates to strikes, so this might be an option for you if your results are lower than hoped for.

This doesn’t sound very much like a withdrawal of labour!

What you are suggesting is completely the opposite of what striking is about!

I also work in a uni and (unfortunately) our students will not be attending any lectures, seminars, online learning etc that they are timetabled to receive from striking lecturers. Why would they strike but do the work anyway? That's entirely missing the point.

Suprima there should be more clear guidance on your university website. At my university, there is a FAQ for students which says that students will not be assessed on work which has not be taught. However ‘taught’ is interpreted fairly elastically and includes self-directed learning from reading and online resources.
Keeping up with the work and discussing with your classmates sounds like a good idea. Any questions I would take to your lecturer once they have office hours again. You would be able to do that if the material had been taught face to face anyway.

I also work in a uni and (unfortunately) our students will not be attending any lectures, seminars, online learning etc that they are timetabled to receive from striking lecturers.

Hopefully those missed lectures and seminars will be rescheduled to non-strike days, or any missed material will be pre-recorded. Otherwise some students will miss out on learning. Exams results could suffer and appealed.

At my DDs uni, online content due for delivery on strike days is not posted (not even later). Also you are "encouraged" not to set foot on uni premises including the library (buildings are quite often occupied by students to prevent entry). My DD won't go near (sympathetic plus growing up in a ex mining town well aware the consequences of not showing solidarity).

The reality is that re-doing assessments so they don't include lectures cancelled due to strikes creates more work for lecturers, but they'll do it in the interests of fairness to their students. Courses with PSRB requirements will have lectures either re-scheduled or the content delivered some other way. Again lecturers will do this in the interests of their students. Lecturers won't stop supervising their research students or those doing dissertations - again these will be rescheduled. Lecturers won't stop their research because they're the ones that suffer. Lecturers will still have their usual marking workload and will do it, just might take a bit longer for results to be disseminated.

Realistically lecturers don't stop work on strike days, they either do it at home or reschedule it.

And contrary to what the union thinks most universities can't afford the pay rise. The RG may be able to with its decent reserves, but plenty lower down the pecking order can't - remember what the 'C' stands for - colleges, already on the verge of going under. And significantly more than half the sector don't have USS pensions either.

I really think there's room for another HE union.

Hopefully those missed lectures and seminars will be rescheduled to non-strike days, or any missed material will be pre-recorded.

But that would be COMPLETELY missing the point of striking. Why do the work (in your own time) if you're on strike?

I COMPLETELY understand that students are missing out. But lecturers will absolutely direct them to resources so that they can study independently.

Should teachers be providing online lessons on strike days so that children don't miss out?

Lecturers and examiners are basically the same people. I assume this happens everywhere but in my experience you design a course, deliver it (or arrange for guest / expert speakers), design and set an assessment and then mark it. So lecturers will know what has been delivered and how that aligns with assessment.

They will have to allow for strikes, yes or the awards process would not be fair.
You need to ask your own course staff the specifics.

Lots of thoughts, thanks for replying all. I’ll speak to my uni.

I absolutely don’t expect things to be timetabled again or moved around- or it’s not a strike!!

But I also don’t think it’s fair to be assessed to the same standards as previous years when I haven’t received more than half of my face-to-face teaching hours. So I hope it’s taken into consideration.

My course is a social science where our exams assess how well we can link and compare theory. The seminars are actually where a lot of knowledge is imparted and are a bit like a-level lessons with discussion. Not having these for half the course is really sad- but I completely get why they may need to happen.

They will have to allow for strikes, yes or the awards process would not be fair.

This. Students have to either be taught the material on non strike days or exams will need to be modified.

Yes but surely results are also given to externs to examine?

Material will be second marked internally or moderated depending on the policy, but external examiners usually only see a sample of assignments not a full class.

No. As all students are judged against each other using a bell curve

To clarify, the striking lecturers are not individually required to do this, it’s done at department level (presumably by those not on strike).