How might students be affected by industrial action?

The industrial action being taken by UNISON is in relation to the 2025–26 national pay award for staff. The national pay settlement is agreed each year following negotiations between the University and College Employers Association (UCEA), which represents 140 HEIs including King's, and nationally recognised unions, one of which is UNISON. 

The University will be open and you will still be able to access the facilities and services on campus. Some of the opening times for libraries may change so please check the libraries website.

Some of our building entrances and exits may be altered at short notice, any changes will be clearly marked. 

We are expecting classes to go ahead as scheduled, including the supervision of projects and dissertations and you should attend as usual. You should also continue to submit any assignments you have to existing deadlines.

Industrial action is the general term for collective legal actions taken by employees of a company or organisation as a protest. It can consist of both strike action and action short of a strike (ASOS).

Strike action is where some staff stop working for a defined period as a form of protest. You may see staff who are on strike outside our buildings, usually at main entrances, on what is called a picket line where staff may ask if they can explain their dispute to you and hand out leaflets.

You should not feel intimated about crossing a picket line, please use alternative routes into the building if you do not feel comfortable walking through the picket line.

Action short of a strike (ASOS) is when staff take other action such as limiting some of their work-related activities outside of any strike days. ASOS is determined by the union and can run simultaneously to strike days and continue until the union calls it off.

During previous industrial action, ASOS has consisted of staff members working their contracted hours and duties and not volunteering to do more, not rescheduling classes and lectures cancelled due to strike action, not covering for absent colleagues, removing uploaded materials related to, and/or not sharing materials related to lectures or classes that were cancelled because of strike action.

During industrial action, the university would remain open, and we would do everything we could to ensure you continued to have access to the facilities and services on campus including informal study spaces, libraries and computer rooms.

There might be some changes to opening and closing times of some of our buildings and some entrances and exits might not be in use. Signs would be in place to direct you to alternative entrances and exits.

Some of the opening times for libraries might change; this would be shown on the libraries website.

Our student advice, wellbeing and welfare services would continue to be available throughout industrial action.

We wouldn't expect industrial action to have any significant effects on research. During industrial action, please continue your research, as guided by your supervisor(s).

We would expect related training courses and workshops to continue as normal, so you should attend unless you are advised otherwise by the relevant department or training provider.

If you are a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), please see the staff Q&A.

Some teaching staff might choose to strike but many other staff would be working on these days. During industrial action, you should attend unless your lecturer or department tell you otherwise.

During industrial action, you should continue to attend unless your lecturer or department tell you otherwise.

Yes, you should continue to submit your assignments to the existing deadline during industrial action. You would be notified if there were any change in the submission arrangements. You would not need to apply for mitigating circumstances if the department adjusted assignment deadlines as a consequence of industrial action.

During industrial action, there might be instances where teaching and learning sessions would have to be cancelled or rescheduled. 

If they can, your faculty or department would let you know as soon as possible of any change to your timetabled session. We would ask you to please continue to check your emails and KEATS regularly. However, we would not always be able to inform you of any changes in advance, as staff members would not legally be required to tell the University if they planned to take industrial action.

If a session is rescheduled, you would be expected to attend at the new time unless you had been given prior permission to be absent, in line with normal procedure.

Important to know:

• If a staff member were to not arrive for the start of a teaching session, you should wait a few minutes to make sure they’re not late before leaving the room.
• If a lecture, tutorial or other planned contact point were cancelled due to industrial action, you should make a note of it.

Yes, the university remains open during industrial action, and we would do everything we could to ensure you continued to have access to the facilities and services on campus including informal study spaces, libraries and computer rooms.

We would support you with your studies and independent learning. Our student advice, wellbeing and welfare services would continue to be available to you throughout industrial action.​​​​

Like other students, you might experience some disruption during industrial action. Your Student Success Advisor would remain available and would continue to be your first point of contact for all matters related to your programme.

Your Student visa conditions would not be affected by industrial action. You should attend as scheduled, and the normal processes for attendance monitoring would continue to apply.

Like other students, you might experience some disruption due to industrial action. The Global Mobility team would remain available throughout the period of industrial action and would be able to provide additional support and guidance. 

Student services would remain available throughout any industrial action period. More information about the range of support services available can be found in this article.

During industrial action, you might wish to speak to your department or the following services for support, which would continue to be available: 

• Visa & International Student Advice
• Money & Housing Advice
• Faculty Wellbeing Advisors – you can book an appointment with our team of advisors to discuss and support your personal wellbeing.
• Chaplaincy – emotional support and practised listeners for students of all faiths and none.
• Spectrum.Life – 24/7 external and confidential online support and wellbeing service.
• KCLSU Advice – impartial academic advice for students with issues affecting their studies.

If you were struggling with your mental health, you might also wish to seek support from our Counselling & Mental Health Support Service. A range of support would remain available outside King's usual working hours (09.00-17.00, Monday to Friday). For more information, including our King's Counselling Online service, please visit our article on mental health support during evenings, weekends and vacation periods.

Important to know: The services listed above would not be able to answer questions about the industrial action.​​​​​​

No, it is not expected that you would need to submit a Mitigating Circumstances Form (MCF) due to industrial action, as your department would put in place measures to provide mitigation for all students in this situation.

However, there might be very limited exceptional circumstances in which you feel that you have been more severely impacted due to your personal circumstances, and that industrial action has unduly affected your assessments.

In that case, you would contact your department in the first instance, who would be able to provide more information on what steps were taken and would let you know if they thought that you had exceptional circumstances, where an MCF might be appropriate. If an MCF were deemed appropriate, your department would support you to complete it.

When industrial action takes place, not all programmes are impacted because not all staff take part; any potential impact is variable and specific. As a result, the university does not make any general changes to tuition fees due to industrial action.

If you feel that your education has been impacted by industrial action, you have the right to complain through a formal process. Complaints are always considered on their own merits, on a case-by-case basis, and outcomes are specific to individual circumstances. This includes consideration of the ways in which mitigation has been applied for any teaching that hasn't taken place.

Details on how to submit a complaint are available in the article How can I make a complaint to the university? including timeframes for submitting your complaint.

Important to know: Faculties and departments are unable to deal with any complaints about industrial action, and these should be directed through the process outlined in the article above.

If you have any questions or concerns that are not answered here, please contact us by submitting an enquiry through our online enquiry form.

When asked what your enquiry is about, please select ‘industrial action’, to help us get your question to the right team.

You can also contact your faculty or department if you have questions about your programme.