'Uni marking boycott could render my hard work worthless'

Abigail Maguire's university experience has been marked by trauma and overcoming adversity.

Recovering from the death of her brother, her physical health suffered while she studied her liberal arts degree at the University of Nottingham, affecting her second year grades.

In the past few weeks, staff have started a boycott of marking in protest at planned job losses, with nearly 2,700 employees placed at risk of redundancy.

Now Maguire fears plans to use her earlier grades to arrive at her final degree grade will not reflect her final-year work, for which she has been averaging first-class scores.

A spokesman for the university said it was focusing on "supporting our students' wellbeing and ensuring they are treated fairly" while strike action took place.

Maguire said her brother had died before she enrolled at the university, but the loss had created a lasting impact.

"I was struggling with certain traumatic findings from his death, [and] I was also surpassing him in age at that time, which was also really difficult," she said.

"I was also dealing with physical health problems, and it severely affected my course and my grades, so I appealed to the university and explained my situation.

"They didn't give me a choice, they didn't give me an opportunity to take the exams when I was in a better state of mind... I passed, but just about, and they said 'just do better in your third year'.

"I worked really hard in my third year, I managed to average for a first, so that makes up for the lost marks in my second year, and now all of that could just be over-ridden, and just worthless."

Maguire said other students were also anxious about grades from earlier years being taken to estimate their grades, which they felt were "not a true reflection" of their additional efforts in their final years.

"I think that applies to most students - you're coming to the end, it's the final push, you want to do really well, so I think all students are disappointed," she said.

"It doesn't matter what situation you are in, it's not reflective of what you deserve."

Though students can reject the estimations derived from earlier results and wait for all work to be marked, Abigail - who is planning to wait - said that would still leave those graduating in a difficult position.

"I think the students are sort of held to ransom with it, because if you reject the derived marks you don't actually know when you are going to get [work] marked," she said.

"It could be October, it could be August, it could even be December, and obviously that affects students who are possibly on postgraduate schemes [or] have conditional job offers."

In a statement, the university said it could not discuss individual cases but it had "established processes" in place for students who experienced "unexpected health issues or difficult personal circumstances".

"In cases where a student is unhappy with the outcome of their appeal, they have the right to seek an independent review from the office of the independent adjudicator," a spokesman said.

"Our contingency regulations have been designed to ensure affected students can still progress or graduate.

"They make use of a combination of actual marks, marks based on completed work, and, only where necessary, marks derived from a student's broader academic performance.

"Wherever possible, actual marks are used as the first and preferred approach.

"Students are not required to accept an outcome which uses the contingency regulations, if they feel this may disadvantage them."

Maguire said she planned to hold out until all her work can be marked properly - whenever that was.

"It's important to me that my mark reflects what I've done, and my hard work throughout my third year, and I don't want that to go to waste," she said.

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