In an escalation of the industrial dispute over this year¡¯s ¡°miserly¡± 1 per cent pay offer, academics belonging to the UCU will refuse to mark essays or exams (the union¡¯s ¡°ultimate sanction¡±) from 28 April unless an improved pay deal is agreed.

The union said today that it had given the green light to an option of a marking boycott.

Staff will also refuse to take part in examination board meetings or exam preparation discussions and will not communicate any marks to students ¨C actions which could leave hundreds of thousands of students unable to graduate, thereby hampering their ability to find a job.

It would also cause disruptions in terms of academic progression at university as departments will not know which students have passed or failed their exams.

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However, UCU members are likely to incur significant financial loss from the boycott, with many universities likely to impose 100 per cent pay deductions for ¡°partial performance¡± while exam scripts remain unmarked.

It would be the first marking boycott since 2006, which led to a multi-year above-inflation pay offer, and follows three one-day strikes and three two-hour stoppages by UCU members.

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¡°A marking boycott is the ultimate sanction, but an avoidable one if the employers would negotiate with us over pay,¡± said Sally Hunt, the UCU general secretary.

¡°No member I have spoken to wishes to see this dispute escalate, but in the continued absence of meaningful negotiations from the employers, we are left with no alternative,¡± she added.

Ms Hunt said this year¡¯s 1 per cent pay offer, which follows four successive below-inflation rises, has left staff? with a real-terms pay cut of 13 per cent since 2009.

¡°I fail to see how any university can claim to have students¡¯ best interests at heart if it is not pushing for talks with the union to resolve this dispute,¡± Ms Hunt said.

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¡°Even now the timetable we have set provides a generous window of opportunity for the employers to address our just demands, which we, and students, hope they take,¡± she added.

A spokesman for the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, which negotiates pay on behalf of higher education institutions, said support for the strikes had ¡°dwindled¡± in recent weeks, with the ¡°overwhelming majority of staff¡± not taking part.

¡°Higher education institutions will certainly be disappointed that the UCU is still threatening a marking boycott, as this is action that is once again aimed directly at students¡¯ education,¡± he said.

¡°It is quite extraordinary for the UCU to be planning yet more action over last year¡¯s pay uplifts with the 2014-15 pay negotiations due start in March, a full month prior to the start of their threatened marking boycott,¡± he added.

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Ucea claim that last year¡¯s pay uplift averaged 3 per cent overall because many staff enjoyed incremental pay rises and urged UCU to engage in ¡°positive dialogue about how they could approach the 2014-15 pay round, rather than continue to dispute last year¡¯s pay claim¡±.

jack.grove@tsleducation.com