The University and College Union in the UK has announced it has rescinded its marking and assessment boycott in order to re-ballot and escalate dispute over pay and conditions with employers. 

Last week, Dr Jo Grady, UCU General Secretary decried the increasing profitability of UK universities in relation to the meagre pay award imposed by employers despite hugely disruptive strikes between 2021 and 2023. 

In spite of consistent action over the past 6 years, still over 90 000 university staff are on insecure contracts, with many working an average of two extra days unpaid per week. The union has rightly become increasingly confrontational with University management. Sustained ignorance of employee demands is likely to harm institutions abilities to draw high quality staff, dramatically reducing the efficacy of higher education in the Britain, union members are not just fighting for fair employment, but for the future of higher education. The results of a strike ballot will be revealed next week, 20th September, determining whether members will be staging a beginning of term strike. 

The timing of this strike is illustrative of increasing frustration from within the union, as freshers arrive and students return, pickets outside of campuses before modules have even begun is indicative of the desperate position that higher education in the UK is in. All students over the past 6 years have experienced disruption to a large portion of their education, and if universities continue to ignore the needs of their employees, these disruptions will undoubtedly have an impact on the long-term quality of higher education in the country. impACT implores Universities to reconsider the meagre 5% pay award extended to employees, vice-chancellors must decide whether profitability is more important than high quality education.