Category: Marking & Assessment Boycott

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Financial support and donations during the MAB

Email sent to members on Monday 11th May 2026.

Dear members

Please bookmark this email. It contains the following important information for future reference: 

  1. Details on the financial support available  from both the national and local fighting funds for taking part in industrial action, including the marking and assessment boycott (MAB)
  2. Details on how to donate to our solidarity fund for those who are unable to take part in the MAB

Financial support during the MAB

The employer is expected to deliver pay deductions for members taking part in industrial action.  However, we will be able to offer financial support to help lessen the impact of this. 

In the event of partial pay deductions for taking part in the MAB, members will be able to access the local solidarity fund. In the event of 100% pay deductions, they will be able to access both the local fund and the national UCU fighting fund.

National UCU fighting fund:  When pay is deducted in full, whether as part of a MAB or through strike action, members can apply to the national UCU fighting fund for support. They can apply for support after two waiting days ie from the third day of action onwards. They can then apply for up to a maximum of 8 days at £75/day (<£30k salary) or £50/day (>£30k salary).  The national fund cannot be used in the event of partial pay deductions. 

Details on how to apply to national fighting fund can be found here. 

Members should apply to the national fund first before looking to access the local solidarity fund.

Local solidarity fund: In addition to national support, the branch will also be able to support members taking part in the forthcoming MAB.  Thanks to previous donations from members and other branches,  we have recently been able to build up healthy financial reserves in our solidarity fund.    To this end, for as long as funds are available, we will offer:

  • Up to £500 to cover the first two months of the MAB. 
  • If the MAB is cut short before that time, we will offer £20/day up to a maximum of £500. 

Members do not need to request the full amount. In fact, in order to ensure that funds remain available to those in greatest financial need, we encourage members to consider asking for less if they feel able to do so.

We hope to be able to increase this offer provided we receive enough support from further donations (see below)

Details on how to apply to local solidarity fund will be shared in due course. Note that you will have to provide evidence of relevant salary deductions on your pay slip, in order to apply for this support in both cases. 

Members with acute financial needs can apply to the branch for an immediate loan ahead of the decision – please email the branch (uonucubranch@gmail.com) and mark your email ‘loan request’. 

Supporting other members taking part in the MAB

All members able to impact assessments should take part in the MAB. However, if you are not involved in assessments, we ask that you donate to the local solidarity fund to help support those who are taking part and share the burden of financial responsibility. 

We recommend a donation of at least a quarter of your take home salary for each day of the MAB.  Members who wish to donate more are, of course, welcome to do so! Here are the details to donate to the local solidarity fund by bank transfer:

UCU Nottingham LA63 Hardship Fund

Account number: 20346359

Sort code: 60-83-01

Ref: MAB 2026

In the event the management does not go through with pay deductions for those taking part in a MAB, we will offer to return all donations back to the donor.

If you have any questions about this, please contact me directly. 

In solidarity

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Memories of a local MAB!

Email sent to members on Monday 11th May 2026

As part of our campaign to defend jobs and working conditions at the University of Nottingham, we will be sending regular emails, authored by different UCU members, examining key elements of management’s restructuring plans. Today we look back at our victory in the local Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) in 2022. Feel free to share this post with non-UCU members in your area.

Memories of a local MAB

It was spring half term. As usual, we were in Cornwall, at the Valley Caravan Park in Polzeath. We go there every year. If you haven’t been you should. It’s a surfers’ paradise.

On this occasion I left my young family playing on the beach and headed back to the caravan. I had a crunch meeting with management. We were a few weeks into a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) and management was desperate to draw it to a close.

Representing UCU was me, Lopa and the legendary Agnes. Lopa played good cop, I played bad. Agnes was just Agnes. She never stood for any crap but at the same time, she had an uncanny ability to win over management. We miss her.

Representing the other side was the then registrar, the CFO and the head of HR. All of them have since left – some under a cloud following the fiasco that was the purchase of castle meadow campus.

This was the MAB of 2022. A local affair where everyone in the call had agency. As representatives of the local UCU branch, we had the power to return to our members and call off the action. As the representatives of university management, the trio on the other side had the power to deliver on our demands.

This changed everything. Although one member of the managerial team entered the meeting all bullish and macho, dismissing our requests as impossible, he was soon sidelined by the other two, more serious operators.  They were ready to deal. They saw that the MAB was causing chaos – that the students were up in arms – and they knew they could do something about it. They could talk to UCU – to me, Lopa, and Agnes – and see what they could do to bring it to an end.

We had the upper hand right from the start. We had the power given to us by you, the members who were taking action.  In the end, it was no surprise that we secured a resounding victory. Management agreed to a package of measures across the board: full transparency on gender and ethnicity pay gaps alongside a jointly developed action plan to reduce them; steps to tackle casualisation, including restricting the use of temp agencies and rolling out the Graduate Teaching Assistant model; a pay uplift for colleagues at the top of grades 4–6; agreed principles on pensions to ensure that any future improvements would benefit members rather than reduce employer contributions; and joint work to bring workloads down to manageable levels through more realistic modelling and  proper review of staff–student ratios. Most, if not all, of these measures have held up over the last four years.

When we finally put this deal to members, I was on a day trip to Padstow, sharing details about the pension deal with members via zoom from the harbour, surrounded by day trippers eating cream teas or fish and chips. My kids waited patiently with nets in the water, hoping to catch a crab. The members voted overwhelmingly for the deal we had secured. UCU Nottingham had won.

This was all possible because it was a parochial affair, just as it is now.  The coming MAB will hurt management and they will know that they are responsible for stopping it. They won’t be able to hide behind national negotiators. This is their problem – no one else’s. And if they want to fix it, they know what they need to do.

Commit to no compulsory redundancies.

Protect staff.

Protect the future of the university

            On behalf of the UoN UCU branch committee

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Motions from AGM 19th June 2023

After the AGM business of ratifying members of the committee for next year, three emergency motions were proposed. All three were passed with significant majorities.

Motion 1) Fighting the 50% Deduction Threat

We note that:

1)     The university does not accept partial performance and has threatened staff who participate in the Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) with 50% pay deduction from their salary from 15 May-17 June 2023.

2)     50% deduction of pay for five weeks due to participation in the MAB is punitive, unreasonable, and disproportionate. 

3)   legal challenges to the deductions will be slow, conducted on an individual basis and the outcome of these remain uncertain.

4)  the best way to challenge the deductions in the short to medium term is through an escalation of local action by UCU, including strike action, a strategy which has already proven successful  at the University of Queen Margaret and Kings. 

If the university does not rescind its threat of 50% deductions, we resolve to escalate our action by

1)     Leafleting at Open Days 

2)     Carrying out an indicative e-poll in order to gauge members’ willingness to take strike action during Welcome and Induction Week

Motion 2) Retraction of Conflict of Interest re Senators who are also members of UCU

We note that:

1)     The University Senate has been asked to note that senators who are also members of UCU have a conflict of interest when discussing issues related to industrial action and that they must declare this conflict in advance of these discussions.

2)  This note is based on the assumption that UEB acts in the university’s interest on such matters, but UCU members–who serve on Senate in an individual, non-union capacity–do not. 

3) Trade union membership is sensitive data under GDPR and many join a trade union to express and act on strongly held political beliefs.

4) UCU members who serve on Senate do so in an individual capacity and act independently of UCU.

5) The prosperity of the University is in the interests of all university staff, including UEB and UCU members. UCU members who serve on Senate in an individual, non-union capacity, may or may not agree with UEB on how this prosperity is best achieved, but their membership of UCU does not prevent them from acting in what they believe to be the University’s best interest. 

6) The University’s articles of incorporation mention no one should be treated differently because of trade union membership.

7) UoN UCU and the University have a longstanding recognition agreement which states both ‘have a common interest in the wellbeing of the University’  

8) UCU members elsewhere in the UK have fallen victim to similar campaigns of silence, including exclusion from exam boards on the grounds of CoI

9) At  Senate on June 13, the relevant item was discussed and sent back for further legal consultation

This branch will call on the University to immediately retract any declaration regarding the conflict of interests of Senators who are also UCU members, and to apologise for the initial intimidation.  If the university fails to do this, this branch resolves to

1.     Initiate a publicity campaign, locally and nationally, to draw attention to this abuse of power by UEB against members of UCU

2.     Support any of its members serving on Senate who are being unfairly treated as a result of the declaration  

Motion 3) Ukraine, Union Solidarity, and Self-Determination

 The University of Nottingham branch notes

1   2023 UCU Congress passed Motion 5 “Stop the War in Ukraine—Peace Now” by merely 9 votes out of 288, with 37 abstentions.

2  This motion has been divisive, supplied fodder to an already hostile press, distracted the union from the main struggle at hand, and led to resignations of scores of members disgusted by its wording, not least within Slavonic studies and among those of Ukrainian descent. 

3  The motion transpired without any prior discussion of the issue in our branch—or, presumably, the vast majority of branches.

4  This motion was composed without any serious attempt to involve scholars in such fields as Slavonic studies or international relations, when our union is meant to value research and knowledge.

5  The motion contains no reference to the Ukrainian labour movement, whose two federations have thrown themselves into the resistance to the Russian invasion and simultaneously struggled to uphold workers’ rights in wartime, or to Ukrainian trade unionists, who have been among those fighting and dying on the front lines.

6  The motion states that “wars are fought by the poor and unemployed of one country killing and maiming the poor and unemployed of another,” a cliché true of some wars that does not well describe Ukraine’s fight for independence, in which professionals, students, intellectuals, technicians, and university lecturers have volunteered.

7  The motion does not affirm the right to self-defence or principle of self-determination, which would require respecting the Ukrainian people and government’s urgent requests that the world supply them with arms.

8  The motion calls on “government to stop arming Ukraine” when that would result in victory for the Russian state’s aggression and annexationism.

Therefore, the Nottingham branch

1 – Calls on the NEC to

a)   Put Motion 5 “Stop the War in Ukraine—Peace Now” to an immediate e-ballot of the whole UCU membership, since in this instance we believe a direct consultation is essential to determine whether Congress accurately represented the union’s membership.

b)  Place resources and emphasis on Congress 2023 Motion 6 (which emphasised self-determination and solidarity with Ukraine) and not Motion 5.

2  – Calls for a special Congress for the purposes of repealing Motion 5 “Stop the War in Ukraine—Peace Now”, commits to submit a motion to that effect to that special Congress, and asks other branches to call for such a special Congress.

3  – Acknowledges why many members resigned over this issue and respectfully requests them to rejoin our union and help us forge a sound internationalist policy.

4  – Urges all members to remain in UCU and carry the current campaign to victory against neoliberal management’s disastrous course in the post-16 education sector.

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Marking and Assessment Boycott – what does it mean for students?

On Thursday 11 May, at the emergency meeting of Senate – the governing body responsible for academic affairs – management narrowly pushed through emergency regulations with 39 votes in favour, and 37 against. This has extremely important ramifications for your degrees.

What are the emergency regulations?

These regulations allow the university to disregard some of your hard work and make ‘informed guesses’ as to what you might actually have achieved. This is especially concerning for your final year Dissertations / Projects, which may not be read at all. 

Why have they been introduced?

The emergency regulations are management’s response to the call by UCU (University and Colleges Union) for a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB). The MAB is part of industrial action across the Higher Education sector in response to pay cuts of 25 per cent since 2008, a pay offer of less than half of current inflation this year, as well as continuing gender, race and disability pay gaps, excessive workloads and widespread casualisation.

Instead of negotiating with UCU to address these issues, University management has decided to penalise staff, degrade your degrees, undermine academic integrity, and place the global status of UK HE in jeopardy.

What are the consequences of the emergency regulations?

There are grave doubts as to whether it will be feasible to implement these regulations successfully[1]. The narrow margin in the Senate vote reflects the concern that these measures are unworkable and unfair. Some professional accreditation bodies are likely to reject them outright[2].

The implications are clear. If your degree is affected by these regulations, it will lose some of its value. Some students will be affected more than others, creating artificial hierarchies in the quality of degrees, even within a single cohort. Employers will know this. They will recognise that some degree classifications are guesstimates at best and will ‘value’ them accordingly.

What is the solution?

Instead of waging a war on its own staff, our management could push the employers’ association, UCEA, into meaningful negotiations with UCU, the union that represents your lecturers and other university staff. Instead of imposing yet another pay cut, our management could push for a serious pay offer, which takes current inflation levels into account. Instead of pretending that high workloads, pay gaps and casualisation are inevitable, University management should commit itself to concrete measures improving these situations. There is another way forward.

UCU is always ready to talk. We want to find a solution that serves everyone, staff, students and the University. You will know that we have repeatedly tried to reason with employers, but they have just not shifted their position. Unfortunately, their “solution” to this crisis is to devalue your degree and to threaten staff taking part in lawful action with punitive pay deductions of 50 per cent of full salary that will, in some cases, reduce your lecturers’ income to below the National Minimum Wage. You deserve better, we deserve better!

If you are worried about the Universities’ refusal to engage in meaningful talks, we encourage you to write to the Vice Chancellor Prof. Shearer West. Demand that she speaks up for staff and students at UoN and calls for UCEA to enter proper negotiations. You can email her and other senior managers directly by scanning the following QR code:

Best,

UCU branch at UoN

[1] The University has serious problems with the software it uses to manage student records and it is hard to believe it will stand up to the test of these emergency regulations. Many of you will already have experienced problems being enrolled on the right modules or registered for the right exams.

[2] For example, the Institute of Physics and the Royal Society of Chemistry have already raised serious concerns. At Cambridge University, similar emergency regulations were rejected by their governing body.

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UCU Industrial action strategy 2023

In the ongoing debate about what the next steps in our industrial action to restore USS benefits and obtain a better deal for pay and working conditions should be, we (UoNUCU branch committee) think that the proposal in our September motion is the most sensible: on-going strike action from the first day of the second semester, organised in such a way that members only take strike action on those days when withdrawing labour impacts the employer.
Read a longer rationale here

Branch meeting to discuss this and make your voice heard
Jan 6 2023 at 13:00
Zoom link will be sent to branch members via email