Uni of Edinburgh not marking dissertations/final pieces of work - anyone else's DC affected?

[Iliketulips]

DD heard this afternoon that her dissertation and final pieces of work are not to be marked by Uni of Edinburgh. She is absolutely devastated right now as she wanted her true degree result and feedback on hours of work. She feels her most recent work is the best, so will never know if she could have got her grade up. Moving forward she was seriously considering studying a masters abroad abroad and also working abroad, but now uncertain if that's possible as she thinks they'll wanted an athenticated degree.

That's awful! What subject?

This cohort have had such a rough deal: strikes, followed by covid and now this (niece is about to graduate so I'm assuming same year as your DD).

If that is true, they should take a group action for a refund of fees and impact on their career earnings.

I think it's across the board of subjects.

Apparently some students turned up to their Spanish oral exam in the week to find there weren't enough professors so only a few did theirs. Doesn't sound like it'll make any difference for them if their work isn't being marked, but still.

DD is working on her final essay and going to complete (although not much incentive) just in case.

BathDangle DD started in 2019. Yes, sadly covid, not much face to face support, lots of strikes so lectures/appointments cancelled.

is that due to strikes?

I was thinking similar.

LIZS yes.

DD has been looking at the question of a refund and doesn't think they're entitled as the uni will say its out of their control.

Have you seen the message? That seems completely unreasonable and beyond what would be considered acceptable. I'm astonished if that's what they are proposing to do.

I had heard this anecdotally earlier this week.

Is it possible that they will be marked after the strike ends, so students get an interim pass degree and then their actual marks and class follow in Nov/Dec?

Marking and Assessment Boycott.

It's awful I'm so sorry. I know it's no consolation but many (most?) of us working in HE are thoroughly pissed off with the union.

Like a lot of students, DD has had her struggles while at uni, but she's got to where she is through determination and hard work.

DD heard this afternoon and I've had her on the phone in tears - this is a rarity. Not to the proper recognition she (and many others) deserve is hard to swallow. They'll be no feedback (not even simplified and delayed) on all those late night hours putting together and perfecting their dissertation.

She's another with work still to complete, her heart really isn't in it, but she's going to do it just in case.

From what she's said, it'll be a fail/pass mark and she's under the impression graduation goes ahead in July (although she doesn't want to go right now).

Unfortunately, many universities will be affected.

Marking and assessment boycott to hit 145 UK universities from tomorrow

https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/12879/Marking-and-assessment-boycott-to-hit-145-UK-universities-from-tomorrow-UCU-confirms

I'm so sorry to hear this - students have had such a rough time over the last few years.

This. A lot of staff will still be marking, so I doubt that the university has issued a blanket statement saying that no dissertations will be marked. Priority is also being given to marking finalists’ work. Any work which isn’t marked by the exam board will be marked once the boycott ends. Students will be awarded their degree this summer on the basis of existing credits, with the possibility of the classification being upgraded once any missing marks are available. I manage an academic department and am expected to hire markers or ask non-striking staff to take on extra marking to get our finalists over the line, and will be doing as much marking as I’m able to myself.

Yea terrible my son got the email last week about the marking and assessment boycott. These kids have had no end of a nightmare with covid and grading of their a levels and all that fiasco. To missing their first year of university with it all being online and now ending their university years with this. They really do deserve a break.

This is absolutely disgusting
This cohort of young people have suffered enough

This is so sad. Disgraceful.

I work in student admin, specifically processing their marks. We and other institutons are of course looking at contingencies and confirming degrees based on their marks so far where possible. Of and when we have a full set of grades we will reassess - if they would have scored higher we will upgrade, but there is no suggestion of downgrading if they actually score lower. Obviously this is not ideal, but...

We also have no idea of time frames. If marks trickle in over the summer the admin staff may be on leave (a lot of my team certainly will be). So it could be very late.

There is nothing to lose by complaining. The students have the biggest voice in all of this, I hope they use it. But a compensation payment of £250 or whatever of course won't make up for this mess.

It's shit. I feel so bad for this generation, I thought mine got a raw deal but these cohorts have really been through it. And the world they're graduating to isn't exactly rosy...

So years of time and thousands of pounds for this. I'm so so sorry for all affected. The students shouldn't be bearing the brunt of a dispute that isn't their responsibility.

Bloody hell. DS has been working so bloody hard on his.

GCAcademic and AprilDecember I suspect you're at a different unis to Edinburgh. If the students are correct about Edinburgh not marking their final work, would you say they have any recourse/argument that they could put forward to get their work assessed later? If you don't want to put this on the forum but willing to comment, please PM me.

DD is considering later study abroad. She's concerned she won't have an authenticated degree that'll be recognised by unis/organisations abroad.

Hello, yes I should have specified I'm not at Edinburgh. I'm at an English Russell Group uni. Obviously each place will have their nuances but a lot of the time they try to get consensus and align their solutions.

Senior managers where I am, those who have been through this kind of thing before, have a gut feeling that the academics will mark the work, they'll just withold them from admin so they can't actually be released to students, employers, other unis etc. Then when the dispute is resolved they will hand the marks over and admin can release them (but a lot of admin will be otherwise engaged, with annual leave, the new cohorts, resits...). It will be clunky.

We are also still expecting some (a lot?) of marks to actually come in. Not all markers will observe the boycott. It's impossible to tell, but at our place some departments are more unionised than others. Which will feel grossly unfair to some groups - engineering students might be more likely to get a full transcript than cultural studies (just plucked those examples out of the air, but you get the picture).

Strikes are horrible and necessary if anything is to change. Your DC can write to the VC and push for an early resolution.