Ulster University insists degrees are being marked properly

The University and College Union has concerns about how some of the marking has been done

Ulster University (UU) has said all students due to graduate this summer will receive their full degree results and classifications.

A spokesperson said "robust processes" were used to ensure students could receive their qualifications.

However the university's branch of the University and College Union (UCU) has raised concerns.

It said some degrees were being awarded "based on incomplete marks and non-expert marking."

Graduations at some other UK universities have been affected by a marking boycott by members of the UCU.

That is part of a long-running UK-wide dispute between the UCU and the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) over pay and workload.

About 750 students at Queen's University Belfast (QUB), for example, are due to graduate over the next week without having their degree results finally confirmed.

However an agreement between Queen's and union members at the university was announced on Wednesday.

It means that the marking boycott at QUB will end and all marking will be completed by 7 August to allow exam boards to finalise results.

Graduations at Ulster University begin on Thursday.

'Anonymous markers'

But in a statement, members of the UCU at the university claimed that UU "plans to award degrees to students based on incomplete marks and non-expert marking in a move to undermine a national marking and assessment boycott".

The UCU said that in some cases "student assignments and exams have not been marked at all".

"In these cases, module marks have been extrapolated from grades given to previous assignments," it said.

"In other cases, 'anonymous' markers with no link to or familiarity with a module have been allocated marking.

"UCU is concerned that students are not being given full information about who marked their work, how it was moderated or whether assignments were not marked and grades calculated based on previous work."

Dr Linda Moore from the UCU said that students "have a right to know who marked their work, and indeed whether it was marked at all".

Graduations at Ulster University begin on Thursday

A previous email from the university to students on 19 June said that UU had asked "other members of academic staff to take on additional marking responsibilities" to ensure that they could graduate.

"In circumstances where the university has made use of alternative markers, we have used only appropriately qualified and experienced Ulster staff to complete additional marking," said the email.

In a statement to BBC News NI in response to the UCU concerns, a UU spokesperson said that the university's governing body, the Senate, "has been fully apprised of, and has approved, the robust processes the University has enacted to graduate its students".

"Degrees are awarded, and only awarded, where programme-level learning outcomes have been achieved and sufficient credit has been accrued," they said.

"Degrees are classified where there is sufficient data to do so.

"These tests have been met for all graduating students.

"The robustness of the processes has been overseen by additional external examiners to their complete satisfaction."

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The statement also said that "in the vast majority of cases" the marking boycott had no impact.

"Where there has been some impact, this has been mitigated by making a holistic assessment of the students' performance in a way that satisfies the expectations and requirements of the university's Senate and to the satisfaction of the appointed additional external examiners," it said.

"All marking has been subject to normal moderation processes, and in many cases we have used enhanced layers of moderation and scrutiny.

"The profile of results of our students will be in line with, and completely comparable to, previous years."