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As many of you will know that HE Trade Unions are currently undertaking industrial action short of strike. This includes working strictly to the contract of employment and may result in staff withholding student marks and non attendance of examination boards (which would mean that marks could not be moderated/verified by the Boards). Several students have already started to make noises about legal action and their rights to disclosure of marks under the DPA. We have a set of terms and conditions that include a clause relating to failure or delay in performing obligations under this contract that are beyond our control such as labour disputes which we hope would protect us from breach of contract action by students (although we wouldn't want to the the test case for such action). Under normal circumstances a subject access request must be complied with within 40 days of the request but the miscellaneous exemptions within the DPA extend the response time for exam results (that have not been published) to up to 5 months from the date of the request. So, we think that there is no immediate obligation for us to release unmoderated marks, but that the situation will need to be kept under close review if the action continues for some months. I am not sure how the action will develop and how staff will interpret "action short of strike" but I would assume that a member of academic staff may mark the exam script and withhold the mark for "the University" - do people think that if the staff member holds that mark then the University is effectively holding the mark or would you view it that the University does not have the info (I vaguely recall some discuss - possibly on the list - about whether staff have an obligation under their contract to disclose marks held by them). Any views/comments? How are other HEIs dealing with this situation? Thanks Angela *********************************************** Angela Temple Committee and Policy Support Officer Planning Support Office Sheffield Hallam University Tel: (0114) 225 3361 Fax: (0114) 225 3498