Boycott fears for overseas market

Fears that industrial action will damage the international reputation of UK universities and hit the multimillion-pound market in foreign students grew this week.

In a letter to universities, Will Migniuolo, director of British Operations of US agency Arcadia University Centre for Education Abroad, voices concerns over the UK exams and marking boycott.

His letter warns that the overseas market "will be damaged long term if students suffer the full consequences of an assessment boycott". Mr Migniuolo's agency places about 1,000 students from several hundred US universities in British universities for one-year or semester-long courses.

In his letter to heads of university international offices, he says that some students who joined courses in January had so far not received any marked work back. They fear that their May and June exams will be cancelled.

Mr Migniuolo says that, as students' work in the UK is "a significant component" of their US degrees, their results were at risk.

He tells universities: "In the light of the assessment boycott, I am being asked searching questions by students and their US academic advisers about whether students' progress in their subjects and towards their degrees will be irreparably compromised because they have enrolled in British universities this year. What should I tell them?"

He warned that the Association of International Educators, which promotes the exchange of students to and from the US, will discuss the problems at its meeting in in Montreal in May.

In an e-mail bulletin sent to union activists, Justine Stephens, head of campaigns at the Association of University Teachers, says the letter provides "more evidence" that the action, in support of a claim for a 23 per cent rise over three years, "is piling pressure on the employers".

Sally Hunt, AUT general secretary, said: "The last thing we want is foreign students returning home with tales of unrest because lecturers are not being properly paid. The international reputation of our universities risks being undermined if employers continue to refuse to resolve this dispute."