How might students be affected by industrial action?

The national disputes are in relation to pensions, pay and working conditions. King's is one of 150 universities across the UK impacted by the disputes.

We recognise the important issues which are of concern to our students and staff, and colleagues across the higher education sector, which have contributed to the industrial action. You can read more about what King’s is doing here.

There are currently no mandates for industrial action in place at King's. If a trade union secures a mandate for industrial action in the future, you will be notified of any planned strike days or periods of action short of a strike (ASOS). 

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 a form of industrial action where some workers collectively withdraw their labour on specific days.

The trade union will notify the university of strike days at least two weeks in advance. However, individual staff members are not legally required to notify the university of their intention to strike on these defined days.

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.

In the event of future 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. In the event of industrial action, please continue with 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 staff might choose to strike but many other staff would be working on these days. In the event of industrial action, you should attend unless your lecturer or department tell you otherwise.

In the event of 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 in the event of 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.

In the event of industrial action, there might be instances where sessions would have to be cancelled. 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.

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 your lecturer is 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.

In the event of industrial action, there might be instances where sessions would have to be rescheduled. If your lecture or class were affected by strike action but still took place, you would be expected to attend at the rescheduled time unless you had been given prior permission to be absent in line with normal procedure.

Yes, 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.

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.​​​​

You might still experience some disruption on strike days, including cancellation of live teaching events and facilitated webinars, or reduced moderation in discussion forums. Your Student Success Advisor would remain available throughout the period of industrial action 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 the industrial action. You should attend as scheduled, and the normal processes for attendance monitoring would apply to undisrupted sessions.

You might still experience some disruption due to strike action and action short of a strike (ASOS), in the same way as other students. 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.

You would also be able to access impartial and confidential academic advice support services from KCLSU. More information is available on the KCLSU website.​​​​​​

We understand that industrial action might cause additional stress and pressure on top of your studies. In the event of industrial action, you might wish to speak to your department or the following services, 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 & 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 strike 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 might 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.

Yes, there is a specific process and complaint form for raising a complaint in relation to industrial action. Details 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, 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.