Lecturers’ boycott may hit pharmacy exams
Industrial action by lecturers over pay may affect the marking of pharmacy examinations at universities across the UK.
Two unions representing university lecturers — the Association
of University Teachers (AUT) and NATFHE — last week turned down
a final pay offer from the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association.
AUT and NATFHE members were asked to take action short of a strike, in
the form of an assessment and cover boycott, earlier this year. Now the
examination season has arrived, this industrial action means that examinations
may be cancelled and marking delayed.
Most universities are confident that most examinations will take place
as scheduled. At the schools of pharmacy contacted by The Journal industrial
action has not prevented examinations from taking place although there
is less certainty about whether marking of examinations will be delayed.
David Packham, secretary and registrar at Aston University, told The
Journal that only 10 out of 800 examinations at the university had not
taken place and none of these had involved pharmacy. However, he added: “We
are facing the prospect that examinations will not be marked or that
staff will mark the examinations but will not release those marks.” This
is a developing situation and could affect pharmacy students, he said.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s education committee discussed
the situation at its meeting on 4 May. Graham Phillips, chairman of the
committee, said: “The Secretary and Registrar of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society has written to all universities running MPharm courses to inform
them students must be assessed as agreed through the accreditation process.
This means that if students are not assessed or assessed in any other
way they may not be eligible to apply to enter preregistration training.
Other health care regulators are considering similar action.” |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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