Some of London’s leading universities will extend course work deadlines and rewrite exam papers to prevent students being disadvantaged by the lecturers’ strike.
University staff walked out for a total of 14 days this year in a dispute over pensions and students fear the lost teaching time could hit their results.
Shakira Martin, president of the National Union of Students (NUS), said students are angry and anxious, despite many supporting the strike. The NUS thinks 180,000 students in London could have been affected.
She called on universities to take responsibility for repairing damage caused, adding: “It stands to reason that students should not be assessed on teaching that could not be delivered.”
At Imperial College, 312 staff took action. Some departments have extended deadlines for submitting course work, while others will revise the content of exams.
The university said: “The impact will vary across departments, across programmes within departments and even between individual students. We will review the impact in each department and apply appropriate measures.”
At Goldsmiths, University of London, assessment deadlines which fell during the strike have been moved.
And at City University some exam papers will undergo minor modifications. — if there is a question on a topic that was not taught because of the strike, it will be replaced. City said: “Where students feel that they have been disadvantaged by the action, we will consider any claims through our formal student complaint processes.”
At King’s College London, half the classes were affected and the exam paper submission deadline has been extended for departments to make changes. Around 370 students want compensation for missed lectures.
Universities are still calculating the exact number of staff that walked out. At Goldsmiths, more than 400 went on strike. At St George’s, 15 teaching staff walked out, meaning five lectures were cancelled, and ten were rescheduled.
In total, 567 medicine and biomedical science students were affected. None have requested compensation.
