Bristol Socialist Students
University of Bristol Socialist Students Society has been made aware of attempts by university management to undermine the University and College Union (UCU)’s marking and assessment boycott. PhD students have been offered £18.85 per hour to mark first and second-year undergraduate assessments, almost double the rate of pay usually offered to PhD students who undertake teaching and marking duties alongside their studies.
Bristol Socialist Students wholeheartedly condemns this latest move by university management to both undercut the ongoing industrial action being taken by staff in UCU and to drive a wedge between staff and students. We call on PhD students at the University of Bristol to refuse to take part in any marking whilst the boycott is ongoing. Instead, they should join UCU, which PhD students can do for free, and stand in solidarity with striking staff on the next day of strike action on Friday 16 June.
We also recognise that this is an attempt to persuade striking PhD students, who are among some of the lowest-paid staff at the University and are employed often on short-term, unstable contracts, to break the boycott.
As students ourselves, we understand the impact a marking and assessment boycott has on undergraduate students. However, we recognise that this disruption is due, not to those members of staff exercising their democratic right, but to the failure of Bristol university management and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association to properly and sincerely negotiate with the UCU over pay and working conditions.
However, we also recognise that even if the current UCU dispute is settled soon, it won’t mark the end of the disruption to our higher education. Students at every level are feeling the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis. The Office for National Statistics found last year that 40% of students are studying at home more to save money. A fifth are attending lectures remotely. An additional survey by the Sutton Trust found that 18% of students have avoided buying educational resources needed for their courses. But it isn’t only in the realm of study that students are feeling the cost-of-living squeeze. 11% of students now use food banks. 28% reported skipping meals to save on food costs, 47% are going out less with friends, and 14% are travelling to campus for free energy use.
So for students, while building support for the current UCU and Unison strikes on the university campuses is vital, this must be linked to a mass campaign against the student cost-of-living crisis and the fight for free education for all – for publicly funded universities and an end to marketisation.
Socialist Students says:
- Support the UCU marking and assessment boycott – PhD students should not undertake any marking whilst the boycott is ongoing
- No punitive pay deductions for staff taking part in the boycott
- Organise joint student-staff meetings on campus to discuss how we fight the attacks on our universities – and where next for our common struggle against the cost-of-living crisis?
- Fight for the funding our universities need to end disruption to students’ and workers’ lives. Fight for high-quality, free education – scrap fees, cancel student debt, and replace loans with living grants rising with inflation
- Build a new mass workers’ party to coordinate the struggles of students and workers in one fight against the bosses and their politicians
- Fight for socialist change – for democratic public ownership of the banks, monopolies and major industry to provide us with a future
