A gutted Edinburgh University student is facing the prospect of not getting her final work marked after spending £36k in fees - and eight months on her dissertation.
Libby Phelan, 22, a fourth-year English Literature student at the University of Edinburgh, has submitted her work but instead of being excited to graduate, she is frustrated as due to an ongoing marking boycott.
The student, from London, told how upsetting the situation is and that there has been no correspondence from the university regarding a backup plan which is leaving many students in limbo - and preventing them from applying for graduate jobs and master degrees.
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Speaking to Edinburgh Live, the stressed fourth-year said: "I have submitted everything now - my dissertation and two final essays which is a total of 16,000 words and I have been working on them since August last year.
"I feel like my whole degree has been leading up to this and it's the first project we get to choose the topic off completely, mine was on pregnancy and breastfeeding in Victorian novels.
"Like many people, I worked so hard on it and feel it's my best piece of work from university - now it is affecting me applying for jobs and is impacting a lot of my friends who are applying for masters."
The boycott began on April 20 at the University of Edinburgh and 145 UK universities after employers failed to produce an improved offer in the pay and conditions dispute.
The University and College Union said the boycott will continue until employers make an improved offer, at which point UCU will decide whether to continue the action or call it off.
No decision has been reached so far.
Libby continued: "It's incredibly disappointing because it will be three weeks of the boycott tomorrow so even if it gets resolved there will be a rush in marking.
"The fact that we might graduate with just a pass or fail mark is devastating and unacceptable. The only communication from the university we have had is that the boycott is happening but no details on what is going to happen with our work.
"It's a horrendous situation and really upsetting. I have £36,000 worth of debt from my time at university and it's 16,000 words of my final work that won't be marked.
"There is nothing we can withhold or do about it. We have paid our fees and submitted our work, we can't advocate for ourselves."
In an email seen by Edinburgh Live, there are potential plans to elevate the marking situation from the university which have also been dubbed unacceptable by students.
Part of the correspondence reads: "These plans propose enabling students to progress or graduate even if their work has not been marked, through relaxing credit requirements.
"They also propose enabling exam boards to take place with just two internal examiners and without the oversight of external examiners."
It explains: "These proposals have not been finalised, and we expect more decisions and guidance to come.
"Many staff, including those not participating in the boycott, are concerned about what these proposals say about the value placed on the work you have done this term and the expertise that goes into assessing it."
A spokesperson for the University of Edinburgh said: “The University has robust measures in place to reduce the impact of industrial action and we are making every effort to provide results, degree award outcomes and progression decisions to students by the published timelines.
“The marking and assessment boycott is part of a national campaign. Additional measures are being implemented across higher education institutions to ensure students’ ability to learn, progress and graduate is not compromised, while maintaining academic standards."
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They added: “The University’s Senate Academic Policy and Regulations Committee has agreed a range of temporary variations to provide greater flexibility to marking assessments and consider the ways industrial action has impacted learning, teaching and assessment.
"These are accompanied by conditions of use to ensure that academic standards are not compromised. Such variations will only be used in the event that activities have been significantly disrupted by industrial action and only when it is not possible to mitigate this using existing provisions of regulations and policies”.
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