Industrial action

This action is due to University and College Union Edinburgh’s (UCUE’s) dispute over the actions being taken by the University to address sector-wide financial challenges.

You can find out more about University finances and actions we are taking on our dedicated webpage:

University finances: your questions answered

We are continuing to engage with our joint trade unions on the changes needed to address our financial challenges.

We recognise this is an anxious and uncertain time for staff and will continue formal consultation with trade unions, always seeking to avoid compulsory redundancies.

The decision by UCUE to take industrial action prematurely ended the agreement we reached in December 2025. We are disappointed to see our students being deliberately targeted and do not believe further escalation was necessary, as from our perspective, constructive discussions have taken place between the University and UCUE.

UCUE members are taking continuous action short of strike from 30 March 2026. This includes working to contract, not covering for colleagues, not rescheduling lectures, assessments or classes cancelled due to strike action, not sharing/uploading materials related to lectures or classes that will have been cancelled as a result of strike action, not undertaking any voluntary activities, undertaking a boycott of administrative work related to implementing the cuts, and undertaking a boycott of the Time Allocation Survey.

Starting 1 May, the action short of strike will also include a marking and assessment boycott.

While any industrial action will naturally have an impact on the University’s operations, please be aware that not all staff will be taking part. We want to minimise the impact on you as much as possible and will work to limit disruption to the delivery of learning and teaching, assessment, progression and student experience, whilst maintaining academic standards.

Participation in the marking and assessment boycott is partial performance of duties which is a breach of contract. The University of Edinburgh does not accept this partial performance of the contract and has decided to withhold 100% of pay. Any member of staff participating has to declare this within three working days of materials for assessment having been allocated or made available to them.

Staff who are participating in the marking and assessment boycott are not obligated to carry out any other work (i.e. non-marking and assessment work) while they are participating. Staff who are participating may choose to still carry out other duties but will not be paid for these. This will only be on the basis of individual staff members’ choice and not endorsed by the University. 

If you are concerned that your dissertation supervision may be impacted as a postgraduate taught or research student, please contact your Student Adviser or School PGR contact in the first instance.

All students’ assessments and work – including dissertations – will be read and marked, even if delayed by the impact of the boycott. For most students, assessment continues as normal.

Most students across the University will receive their award and progression decisions within the usual timescale following the Board of Examiners meeting for their programme. 

Schools that have been impacted by industrial action are prioritising the marking of assessment activities to minimise the number of students with delays to their award and progression decisions. We have committed to ensuring all work is marked and once any missing marks are available, all students will receive confirmation of their course results, and their progression or degree award decision. 

The focus of our work initially is to confirm results for graduating students, but we will continue to work through all outstanding assessments for all years. At the moment, we cannot clarify a precise timeline, but we will update this as we get new information. Your School will keep in touch with you about your results as soon as they can – but please bear in mind that this might take some time.

In some cases, students will receive an interim award. If you have this, you will have received a message from your School to explain this. Please do follow up with your School so you can understand why and what this means. 

Your School will contact you regarding your results as soon as possible after the Board of Examiners for your programme has taken place. 

Where assessment processes on your courses have been impacted by the boycott, there are three possible outcomes:

• It is possible that the Board of Examiners has had sufficient information from the other assessments you have completed to be able to determine reliable marks for your courses. In these instances, Boards will have discounted your missing assessment from your overall course mark.
• Alternatively, if the Board of Examiners were unable to determine a reliable mark but had sufficient information to determine whether you passed or failed the course overall, then they may have awarded you a pass/fail grade instead of a numerical mark.
• Where a Board did not have sufficient information to determine either a reliable mark, or a pass/fail grade, then no course result will have been awarded. The Board of Examiners will revisit your course result as soon as it has additional information to reach a decision. However, the Board may, in some circumstances, have been able to award you credit on aggregate for the course based on your performance in other courses.

Students in years 1 and 2 of Honours degrees can normally progress to the next year of study with less than the full volume of credit awarded (e.g. 80 of 120 credits in year 1), provided that you have passed any required ‘core’ courses, or courses which are pre-requisites for courses in the next year of study. Where you have missing results for core courses, your School will contact you to explain what will happen next.

Where students in years 3, 4, or 5 of an Honours or integrated Masters programme are missing course results due to the boycott, Boards of Examiners are permitted to award credits on aggregate to students who meet specific criteria. Credit on aggregate means that you can be awarded credit for a course, even where it is missing or failed. There are criteria you have to meet in order to be awarded credit on aggregate, but it can usually be awarded for up to 40 credits’ worth of courses in a year, if you have passed your other courses, and have an average mark of 40% for any courses with a numerical mark. 

These credits then count towards minimum progression requirements, allowing you to progress into the next year of study. Where missing course marks subsequently become available when the boycott ends, these will be added to your student record. These delayed additional results will have no impact on your immediate progression decision (i.e.: your permission to progress would not be rescinded), however, they will count towards your final programme average.

If you are missing course results due to the boycott, Boards of Examiners are permitted to award credits on aggregate to students who meet specific criteria. Credit on aggregate means that you may be awarded credits for a course, even where it is missing or failed. These credits then count towards minimum degree award requirements, allowing a Board to award you your degree. Where missing course results subsequently become available when the boycott ends, these will be added to your student record. Where a degree is awarded, it will not be taken away subsequently.

Where your degree has been awarded, but you have results missing, a Board of Examiners may consider whether it has sufficient information available to determine a minimum classification for your award. However, the Board must be satisfied that this classification will not be reduced once missing course results become available. Where a Board does not have sufficient information to determine a reliable classification, the Board of Examiners may award you with an unclassified degree or may delay your classification decision until it has more information. An unclassified degree is a full Honours degree but is given where the final Honours classification cannot be confirmed yet.

In all cases where delayed results become available, classification decisions will be revisited. If you are eligible, a higher classification will be awarded. Classification decisions will not be lowered once awarded.

Most professional or accredited degrees have additional requirements for progression or award set by external accrediting bodies. This means that students on these degree programmes may be required to pass specific courses and face tighter restrictions regarding how much credit can be awarded on aggregate for failed or missing courses. 

Your School can provide you with information about the requirements set by any accrediting body for your degree programme.

All students’ assessments and work – including dissertations – will be read and marked as soon as it is possible to do so.

If there has been enough disruption that the marking of assessments has not been completed by the time your progression or award decisions are being made, the University may provide you with progression or degree results based on your marked work.

Where results are delayed, decisions will be revisited when full results become available.

It is possible that the Board of Examiners will have sufficient information from other assessments completed to be able to determine that you have passed a course.

Only if there has been significant enough disruption that the marking of assessments cannot be done in time to provide you with progression or degree results, we may provide a progression or degree outcome based on work to date. These exceptions will only be used where Boards of Examiners have judged that it is not possible to comply with our normal processes and their use remains compatible with maintaining academic standards. When the missing information becomes available, the Board of Examiners will revisit its decision and amend the outcomes if necessary, except for the award of credit for courses, either on aggregate or on a Pass/Fail basis, which will not be rescinded.

Where a Board of Examiners does not have sufficient information because marks are missing, but it has sufficient information to determine that you have passed or failed a course, then a pass/fail grade may be awarded. The Board of Examiners will revisit the course grade as soon as it has sufficient information to reach a decision.

Where a Board does not have sufficient information to determine a pass/fail grade, then no mark or grade will be awarded and the Board of Examiners will revisit the course grade as soon as it has sufficient information to reach a decision.

Credit on aggregate is where we can award you credit for courses you have failed or which have results missing because you have secured a passing average across courses that were unaffected by industrial action.

For students in Honours years, up to 40 credits on aggregate can be awarded.

As part of the marking and assessment boycott, staff may elect not to participate in Board of Examiners processes. There are temporary variations to the Taught Assessment Regulations in place allowing Boards to take place with substitute members and a reduced quorum, however, Board meetings can only go ahead where there is a sufficient level of expertise to allow it to make robust decisions. 

Where the number of members participating in the Board and/or the expertise of the Board are significantly impacted, the Head of School and the relevant College Office may determine that a Board cannot take place. We expect that this may only affect a small number of Boards.

In these cases, all course and programme decisions usually made by that Board will need to be deferred, even where assessment marks are available. Where Schools need to reschedule a Board of Examiners meeting, they will aim to do so as soon as is realistic, taking account of the continuous nature of the industrial action. Schools will also ensure that they provide students with provisional marks in the interim, where these are available.

If you are required to sit further assessment during the resit diet for any reason (for example, you have failed a semester one core course, or you have been awarded a null sit via Exceptional Circumstances for a course not affected by industrial action), you will be notified of this by your School after Boards of Examiners have taken place.

If you have received credit on aggregate for a course where you had marks missing, you do not need to worry about organising a return to Edinburgh or revising for an assessment during the August examination diet. If credit on aggregate has been awarded and subsequent information indicates that you should not have received credit, the previous award of credit will be maintained.

The resits timetable will be published on 17 July. It will be published to your Outlook calendar and will be available on our website:

Examination Frequently Asked Questions

Where the boycott has not had an impact on assessment processes, the University will follow our usual regulations to determine course, progression and degree award decisions. These are available on our website:

Assessment regulations

Due to the disruption to some of our assessment processes as a result of this industrial action, we have approved a limited number of temporary variations to these regulations. Universities are advised to do this in cases of disruption due to industrial action.

The temporary variations to the regulations provide Schools with a greater degree of flexibility to manage assessment processes. These variations will only be used where Boards of Examiners have judged that it is not possible to comply with our normal processes and their use remains compatible with maintaining academic standards.

These are:

• Allowing Boards of Examiners to take place with substitute members, with a reduced quorum and without the participation of an external examiner, but only where there is a sufficient level of expertise to make robust decisions.
• Allowing Boards of Examiners to award pass/fail grades (instead of numerical marks) on a course without prior approval by a Board of Studies.
• Allowing Boards of Examiners to disregard assessments which have not taken place due to industrial action when calculating final course results.
• Allowing Boards of Examiners to award credit on aggregate for courses at Honours level with results which are missing due to industrial action.
• Allowing Boards of Examiners to classify Honours degrees where results are missing due to industrial action, provided that they are confident of the outcome.

Should these variations be used, you will be informed of this by your School.

The University has agreed a range of temporary variations to our existing Taught Assessment Regulations. We are advised to do this where there are risks of significant disruption.

Assessment regulations | Academic Quality and Standards

The temporary variations provide greater flexibility for marking assessments and allow Schools to take account of the impact the industrial action has had on your learning, teaching and assessment.

These are accompanied by conditions to ensure that academic standards are not compromised. This includes maintaining double marking for assessments with a certain credit weighting, subjecting all assessments to moderation and ensuring a senior member of academic staff oversees each Board of Examiners.

These variations will only ever be used where marking and assessment activities have been significantly disrupted by industrial action.

Only if there has been enough disruption that the marking of assessments has not been completed by the time your progression or award decisions are being made, will we provide a progression or degree outcome based on work to date, and this still needs to meet regulatory standards. This means that in a very small number of cases, where there are significant missing components of assessment to decide, the decision will be deferred and then revisited once additional marks become available.

At that time, any previous award of credit or a degree will not be removed or downgraded.

All existing academic regulations and policies will continue to apply to all assessment and work. Where a programme is monitored by a regulatory body, for example the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for Veterinary Medicine, the accrediting body standards will continue to apply.

No. Students can only appeal awards that have been confirmed as final by their Board of Examiners. A provisional award or unclassified degree or unconfirmed/provisional marks do not represent a final decision, so they are not open to appeal. Once all course marks are available, your final results and award classification will be published to you as soon as is practicably possible. Once published, your degree will be open to appeal. Please be aware of appeal timescales listed in the regulations. Please see the academic appeals webpages for further information:

Appeals | Academic Quality and Standards

No. The deferral of a progression decision is not open to appeal as it is not a final decision. Once a progression decision is made and ratified by the relevant Board of Examiners/Committee it will be open to appeal. Please be aware of appeal timescales listed in the regulations. Please see the academic appeals webpages for further information:

Appeals | Academic Quality and Standards

If your course has been impacted by the Marking and Assessment Boycott and you have not received a final mark, this will not be open to appeal yet. Any mark that has not been ratified will be considered provisional until it is confirmed by the appropriate Board of Examiners/Committee. Once your course marks have been confirmed as final, they will be open to appeal. Please be aware of appeal timescales listed in the regulations. Please see the academic appeals webpages for further information:

Appeals | Academic Quality and Standards

Registration for the summer graduation ceremonies opened on 16 March. If you are planning on attending the ceremony, please make sure to register by 15 June. We want you to be able to celebrate your time at the University of Edinburgh, and all that you have achieved, with your family and friends.

Students who have been awarded their degree, final or provisional, or may still be awaiting final assessments to complete their degree following completion of their programme, should register to attend.

As in any year, if you have failed or not completed your final year due to lack of academic progress not directly related to the marking and assessment boycott, you will not be able to attend the graduation. Your School will provide you with details about next steps should this be the case.

Find out more about graduations:

Graduations | Registry Services | Student Administration

If you are progressing from one programme to another, or to a higher level of studies, you must meet the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) academic progression rule to be able to apply for your next student visa from within the UK. This application must be made before your current student visa permission expires. 

View academic progression guidance from our Student Immigration Service 

To apply for a further student visa from within the UK, you must normally have been successfully awarded your most recent qualification and meet the UKVI academic progression requirement.

Delays caused by the marking boycott may affect some students' ability to be awarded their qualification and therefore meet the academic progression requirement. If you are unable to meet the academic progression requirement, you will not be eligible to apply for a further student visa from within the UK as there are currently no concessions that waive this requirement.

If you are concerned that delays to marking, assessment or the award of your qualification may affect your ability to meet the academic progression requirement, please get in touch with your School/Student Adviser to discuss your academic options before contacting the Student Immigration Service. The Student Immigration Service can advise on individual circumstances and available options.

Contact the Student Immigration Service

If your award is not confirmed at least two weeks before the expiry of your current visa, it will not be possible to meet the eligibility and apply for the Graduate Route visa. Unfortunately, the delay in confirming the award is not grounds for a visa extension.  Further information on other possible routes for working in the UK after studies is available on the Student Immigration Service webpages:

Working after studies | Student Immigration Service

If your sponsor or funder requires confirmation of progression to secure your tuition fee and living cost payments for the next academic year, please contact our Scholarships and Student Funding Team who can provide guidance and details on the financial support available:

Scholarships and Student Funding

If you are due to graduate this year you may be concerned about how industrial action may impact your career plans, whether you have a job offer already or are looking for work.

It is worth contacting employers in the first instance to let them know that you may be impacted by industrial action. We know many employers have been flexible with similar situations in the past. A completion of studies letter will allow you to evidence your progress to date. Individual circumstances and employer practices will vary, so you can speak to the Careers Service for advice and support.

Careers Service

If you require evidence that you have completed your studies for further study or employment, we can provide you with a letter until your award can be confirmed. This letter will confirm you have completed your studies at the University of Edinburgh and will display the courses and marks achieved for completed courses and those courses where marks have been delayed as a result of the marking and assessment boycott. You can access this letter through the Electronic Document Service: 

Electronic Document Service

If you have questions about this letter or can’t access it, please contact infopoint@ed.ac.uk

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.

Schools will take steps to ensure that exam questions accurately reflect the content delivered during the teaching semester.

If any exam paper contains a question on material not delivered due to strike action this will be brought to the attention of the Board of Examiners in order that it can take these circumstances into consideration.

Schools will continue to meet published deadlines for the 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, to minimise any delays.

Boards of Examiners who decide upon results have a responsibility to ensure that students have a fair opportunity to demonstrate performance against the learning outcomes. Marks for exams and assessment go through a moderation process to ensure that they are a fair reflection of students’ abilities. 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 and making decisions on your progression and degree award.

If you have in-person assessments rescheduled from the period of industrial action (30 March to 3 April 2026) but are unable to make the rescheduled date, you need to submit an Exceptional Circumstances application in order to be offered an alternative assessment.

You should include the original date and rescheduled date of assessment within your application, along with the following statement:

“This Exceptional Circumstances application relates to an in-person assessment that was rescheduled due to industrial action. I was unable to attend the rescheduled activities because (insert a brief explanation of your circumstances).”

The industrial action is unlikely to have any impact on your studies at your host institution. If you need support from your Exchange Coordinator or Student Adviser at the University and they are participating in the industrial action there may, however, 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.

There may be delays for students waiting to hear back from the Study and Work Away Service. Staff may also be on strike and SWAY will prioritise the most urgent queries.

Study and Work Away Service

The Exceptional Circumstances Service will continue to operate during the industrial action. If you need to request a coursework extension, please use this service as usual.

Exceptional Circumstances Service

If you choose not to attend a class because of any strike action, and attendance is recorded, you will be marked as absent. 

Please remember that if you have a student visa you are required to demonstrate regular engagement with your studies as a condition of your visa. If you choose not to attend a class because of any strike action and miss teaching or assessment activities as a result, you should continue to engage with your studies more broadly to ensure there is no impact to your visa. Your School can advise you on how engagement is monitored.

If you do not receive a response from your Student Adviser during the period of industrial action, you should contact the Student Advisers team or Graduate School office within your School.

Our EdHelp team is also available if you have any questions about student services:

EdHelp

During the industrial action, the University will remain open as usual. You will be able to continue to access the library and all our support services, although there may be delays in some areas.

Many academic activities will continue to operate as normal, although some areas may be functioning with fewer staff.

If you are due to graduate this year you may be concerned about how industrial action may impact your career plans. 

The Careers Service is here to support you with any questions you may have regarding your career. They are open throughout the summer, with drop-ins and consultations available online and at their offices in the Main Library and the King's Buildings Nucleus.

The Careers Service supports you for at least two years after graduation and has a package of support specifically for those graduating this summer. For further information, please see the service's resources for those graduating this year:

Careers Service - Graduating this Year

If you are concerned that this situation is having an impact on your mental health and wellbeing, or that of someone you know, please do reach out – we have a range of support available.

The University Listening Service offers pastoral support for all students. It provides you with a safe place to talk and non-judgemental listening, and links with specialist sources of help where required. The Listening Service offers appointments 9am to 5pm on weekdays. You can email listening.service@ed.ac.uk to arrange an appointment.

The Listening Service

Student Counselling Service supports the mental health of all students at the University, using short-term counselling and referral to other services. All students (on campus and online) can use this free, confidential service. They offer counselling in-person, and by video (MS Teams), phone and email counselling. 

Student Counselling Service

Part of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association, the Advice Place is a professional, independent and confidential advisory service. You can get in touch online, by phone (0131 374 4581), or in person.

The Advice Place

To access wellbeing support for emergency or urgent matters out of hours, please phone University Security on 0131 650 2257. 

You will find full details of wellbeing support available on our website:

Student health and wellbeing