UCU Industrial Action

Exams are scheduled to continue as planned. If you have scheduled exams in December, you should continue to prepare for them and attend them as required. The exam diet for December has been published and we do not expect this to change. The diet begins on 9th December through to 20th December.  You should remain in Edinburgh until you have completed your final exam.

If there is cause to cancel any of your exams you will be notified of this by your School in advance of the exam. Your School will also advice of next steps in this circumstance.

All of our November ceremonies will proceed as planned. Graduation ceremonies begin on Saturday 23^rd November through to Friday  29^th November.

If you wish to defer your graduation, you can graduate at the next diet i.e. summer 2020. Please be aware if you choose to defer, your degree will not be conferred and you will not receive your certificate therefore you should consider how this could affect your plans for further study and/or employment.

The resource will be spent on the student experience, with a focus on students who have been particularly affected by the industrial action.

During the industrial action, you should work on the basis that your studies will continue as normal, unless you are told otherwise. This means that you should aim to attend scheduled teaching, complete and submit assessments by the relevant deadlines, and continue to plan for any examinations.

If any of your scheduled teaching time is cancelled, you should use available course resources (for example, resources on Learn, course reading lists) to continue your learning for your courses. You should work on the basis that subsequent scheduled teaching activities will go ahead as normal, unless you are told to the contrary by your School Office / Teaching Organisation.

While the University, in line with its terms and conditions, will not be offering tuition fee refunds for cancelled classes or teaching time, it is offering a range of support to students who have been affected by the strike. These include the mitigating steps the University has put in place to ensure – while maintaining academic standards – that students are not disadvantaged in exams, dissertations or in progressing to the next year. 

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which academic standards have been maintained and/or the impact the University’s mitigating actions have had on your learning, you can make a complaint. Please read the guidance for the complaint handling process. 

During the industrial action, the University will remain open and many academic and support activities continue to operate as normal, although we may be functioning with fewer staff.

Where teaching staff are taking part in the strike action, there may be disruption to teaching operations (e.g. lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratory sessions and fieldwork), and provision of feedback. Other staff within professional services at your School may also be UCU members and so may be unavailable during the strike action. Please be aware that not all staff are members of UCU.

While we do not yet know the likely extent of further action, we will continue to ensure that the impact on students is minimised while at the same time maintaining high academic standards.

From the start of the action, Schools will work to ensure the impact on your studies is minimised, but some scheduled teaching may need to be cancelled. Your School will continue to aim to inform you in advance of any teaching which may be cancelled and seek to provide alternatives if possible. In some cases, however, this information may not be available to Schools in advance as staff are not required to inform us they are participating in the action. 

Where you have been set coursework, you should work towards submitting this on time, as usual, and work on the assumption that normal penalties will continue to apply to late or non-submission of coursework. This includes deadlines falling on planned strike days.

For some courses, attendance and participation in classes contributes to the overall assessment for the course, and some students will have other assessment activities such as presentations scheduled during the period of industrial action. You are expected to attend these classes if they are running.

Where your scheduled teaching and assessment events are going ahead as planned, you are expected to attend as usual. While the University recognises that some students may choose not to cross a picket line to attend teaching and assessment events, we will be unlikely to be able to offer alternate teaching and assessment events for these students.

Where an assessment is due to be submitted on a strike day and students are required physically to hand in that assessment, Schools will allow late submission (on the next non-strike day) for students unwilling to cross a picket line. This does not apply if submission can be made electronically.

While the industrial action is currently taking place in semester 1, 2019,  in some areas, it is necessary to pass specified courses in order to have the knowledge and skills that are pre-requisites for taking particular courses in the next session.

Where any cancellation of teaching means that content needed for next year's courses is missed this session, Schools will, if necessary adjust the content in next session’s courses. As long as you pass the work that you are assessed on this session, your freedom to take the courses you choose for next session will not be affected.

In the event that your personal tutor or supervisor is taking part in industrial action and is unavailable, you should contact the Student Support Team in your School who will be able to provide you with support.

If you are a Visiting Student in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the College's Visiting Student Office will be able to provide you with support. The visiting student office can be contacted by email vso@ed.ac.uk or by telephoning 0131 6511700.  

The industrial action is unlikely to have any impact on your studies at your host institution. However, if you require support from your Exchange Coordinator or Personal Tutor at the University of Edinburgh and they are participating in the industrial action, there may be a delay in their response. If this is the case, we advise that you get in touch with your contact in the Study and Work Away Service.

We do not anticipate disruption to library or support services during the industrial action. You will be able to continue to access these as needed.

For compulsory questions: Schools will take steps to ensure that all compulsory questions accurately reflect the content delivered during the teaching semester.

For optional questions: Every effort is being made to ensure exam papers accurately reflect the content delivered during the teaching semester, although this may not be possible in every instance. Students should answer the questions they feel most able and prepared to address. If any exam paper contains a question on material not delivered due to strike action this will be brought to the attention of the exam board in order that it can take these circumstances into consideration.

We understand that many of you may experience some disruption to your teaching or assessment due to industrial action. Please be assured that Boards of Examiners who consider your course and programme results will be given detailed information about the impact of any disruption to each of your courses, so that they can take this into account when deciding your results.

Please be assured that Boards of Examiners who consider your course and programme results will be given detailed information about the impact of any disruption to each of your courses, so that they can take this into account when deciding your results.

You do not need to use the special circumstances process to make them aware of these issues, unless you have experienced a unique impact from the industrial action, for example due to a combination of your personal circumstances, and the action. If you do have unique personal circumstances of which you wish to make the Board aware, you should follow the Special Circumstances Procedure.

If your Course Organiser or another member of academic staff has not responded to your request for a coursework extension, you should contact your School Teaching Office or equivalent. You should submit your work as soon as you are able to do so.

Schools will continue to meet published deadlines for return of feedback to students wherever possible. However, the industrial action may mean that some feedback is returned later than expected. The University has however asked all Schools to prioritise teaching and assessment activities over other work where possible, in order to minimise any delays.