Lecturers 'hurting' degrees

Industrial action by lecturers is jeopardising students' exam results, universities said today.

Members of the Association of University Teachers are boycotting assessment of students' work in a dispute over pay and grading.

Hundreds of students' degrees are being put at risk, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association said today. As the two sides entered talks under the chairmanship of TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, they asked the AUT to suspend the "hurtful" action.

The boycott began last month following one-day strikes at universities throughout the UK, in protest at a 6.4 per cent two-year pay deal.

The other lecturers' union, NATFHE, is balloting to accept the pay deal. But the National Union of Students backs the AUT boycott.