Students increasingly oppose the boycott, Ucea is forced to eat humble pie and examiners are up in arms. The Times Higher reports on the pay dispute.
A vice-chancellor is threatening to pursue individual staff members for potentially tens of thousands of pounds in legal costs and damages if his university gets sued by students caught in the pay dispute, writes Phil Baty.
In the latest in an escalating battle of wills over pay, David Eastwood, vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia, has written to all staff to warn of severe consequences if the university is sued as a result of the lecturers' boycott of the setting and marking of exams.
In a letter to staff last week, Professor Eastwood, who will take over as head of the English universities funding council this autumn, says: "There has been considerable publicity relating to the possibility that individual students may take action and sue the university or individual staff if they are unable to progress or graduate in the normal way.
"The university... would not be able to ignore the fact that such action by students would be rooted in the boycott of marking and assessment by some colleagues."
Legal experts have warned that students could take action for breach of contract or seek damages for lost earnings if they are unable to take up jobs or for living expenses if graduations are delayed. Some may even be able to sue for "loss of enjoyment" of their courses.
Professor Eastwood said that if the university were sued, it would ensure that the staff members responsible would be brought into the legal proceedings as third-party defendants. This would, in effect, ensure that the proceedings "would be against both the university and the staff directly involved".
In addition, he said that the university would "seek to recover any costs and damages from staff" and might also take funds out of departmental budgets to cover legal costs.
The move was vociferously criticised by the Association of University Teachers. Sally Hunt, the union's general secretary, said: "Universities should not be focusing their energies on how to try to pass the buck if students start to become litigious.
"Suggesting ways of suing their own staff is nothing short of disgraceful."
Diane Gilhooley, a partner at the law firm Eversheds who specialises in employment law and education, said it was clear that lecturers taking part in the action could be liable to pay damages and costs, which could be "potentially really substantial".